- To take oath on Wednesday morning at 11
- Basavaraj is son of SR Bommai, former CM
- He is a Lingayat suggested by Yadiyurappa
Bengaluru: Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in his capacity as observer to the meeting of MLAs has announced on Tuesday evening that Basavaraj Bommai will take over as chief minister in place of Yediyurappa who had resigned on Monday. G Kishan Reddy, another cabinet minister, also came to Bengaluru from Delhi as the second observer. Basavaraj Bommai was home minister in the outgoing cabinet. The oath will be administered by Governor Thawar Chand Gehlot at 11 am on Wednesday. The name of Basavaraj was suggested by Yediyurappa. Basavaraj, 61, is son of former chief minister and Janata Dal leader SR Bommai.
Basavaraj told the media persons that he never expected to become chief minister. He was elected unanimously. He left Janata Dal (United) and joined the BJP in 2008. Yediyurappa was the first to congratulate the new chief minister saying in a tweet, “Congratulations to Shri BS Bommai on being elected as the new chief minister of Karnataka. I am confident you will lead Karnataka in the path of development and fulfill the aspirations of people of the State.”
Lingayats comprise 16 per cent of Karnataka population. They are united and sentimental. The seers of this community had repeatedly appealed to the BJP leadership not to remove Yediyurappa. Having removed him, it had become obligatory for the BJP leadership to select a person of Yediyurappa’s choice from the same community. BJP had played a safe game to keep the Lingayat community, which has been traditionally supporting the saffron party, with it.
It is believed that Yediyurappa had sent his resignation letter on July 10 itself with a confidante who handed it over to the prime minister the same day. The outgoing CM had kept his resignation as a secret till the last minute. Yesterday in his farewell speech he was overwhelmed by emotions and said he was being tested all the time during the last two years he was in office of chief minister. He was chief minister four times, but never completed a term. He was the only BJP chief minister in South India so far. Basavaraj would be the second BJP chief minister from the South. He became chief minister for the fourth time after felling the Janata Dal (Secular) and Congress government headed by H.D. Kumaraswamy in a coup. The Congress leaders accused the BJP of using Pegasus software to get their MLAs defected to BJP.
