Basavaraj Bommai is new CM of K’tka
Lingayat leader to be sworn-in as CM today
Lingayat leader Basavraj Bommai was Tuesday elected as the successor of Lingayat strongman B.S. Yediyurappa as the new Karnataka Chief Minister, with the BJP legislature party formally electing him as its new leader. He will take the oath of office at Raj Bhavan in Bengaluru at 11 am on Wednesday. Sources said there was the “clear stamp” of Yediyurappa on this succession plan.
The new CM is the son of former chief minister S.R. Bommai. The 61-year-old leader was the minister for home affairs, law, parliamentary affairs and legislature in Yediyurappa’s Cabinet, which was dissolved on Monday.
“The new leader’s name was proposed by the outgoing CM and endorsed by Govind Karjol, R. Ashok,
K.S. Eshwarappa, B. Sriramulu, S.T. Somashekar and Poornima Srinivas,” the BJP’s central observer and Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan, said after the meeting.
Soon after the announcement, Bommai sought the blessings of Yediyur-appa, who he described as his “political guru”, and was greeted by other party leaders.
The legislature party meeting to elect the new leader took place at a city hotel in the presence of
Pradhan and the other observer, G. Kishan Reddy. Known for his “clean and non-controversial” image, Mr Bommai is considered among the close confidants of Yediyurappa.
Ending months of speculation over his exit, Yediyurappa on Monday stepped down as chief minister as his government completed two years in office. Karnataka Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot accepted the 78-year-old BJP leader’s resignation and dissolved the council of ministers that he headed. As the son of the late S.R. Bommai, this is the second case of a father-son duo becoming CM of Karnataka, after H.D. Deve Gowda and H.D. Kumaraswamy.
Soon after his election as leader of the BJP legislature party, Bommai along with Yediyurappa drove to Raj Bhavan to stake claim to forming the government.