BJP names Basavaraj Bommai as new chief minister of Karnataka

The BJP legislature party on Tuesday chose Basavaraj Bommai, the 61-year old leader and home minister in the outgoing cabinet, as the new chief minister.

Outgoing chief minister BS Yediyurappa proposed Bommai’s name, and the BJP MLAs endorsed the choice by a round of applause. Bommai will take oath of office as chief minister at an event in Raj Bhavan on Wednesday.

An engineering graduate from Dharwad district, Bommai was earlier in the Janata Dal, and JD(U) before joining the BJP where he made it big. His father SR Bommai was also a chief minister of Karnataka in the 1980s.

Bommai had identified himself as a confidante of Yediyurappa and got the additional portfolio of Law and Parliamentary affairs in the recent Cabinet reshuffle.

The election of new leader was possible as the BJP central leadership moved swiftly to end the leadership vacuum arising out of the resignation of Yediyurappa hours after completing two years in office.

BJP’s national general secretary in-charge of Karnataka Arun Singh, and observers Dharmendra Pradhan and Kishan Reddy were in Bengaluru as central observers.

The party, sources said, had come around to the view that it was better to have a leader from the Lingayat community to succeed Yediyurappa, the tallest political leader from the community, who also played a big role in building the party in the southern state from the grassroots.

Lingayats are Karnataka’s largest community and there would have been concerns in the Delhi leadership about a potential political cost in not keeping them happy. The party won 25 out of 28 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections largely on their support, apart from prime minister Narendra Modi‘s personal appeal.

Bommai represents the Shiggaon Assembly Constituency in Haveri district, a part of the Mumbai-Karnataka region which gave the BJP large number of seats in the 2018 Assembly polls. Members of the new Cabinet will be decided at Delhi, and the first round of expansion may happen in about a week.

The outgoing Cabinet had three Deputy CMs belonging to Lingayat, Vokkaliga and SC communities. The BJP might address the caste equations while choosing the deputy CMs. Political analysts say the party is no longer as formidable as it was three years ago, and hence will most likely juggle the political positions carefully with an eye on the 2023 Assembly polls and the Lok Sabha elections a year later.



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