All you need to know about Basavaraj Bommai, from Tata engineer to Karnataka’s new CM

Basavaraj Bommai is Karnataka’s new CM and his elevation will keep both Lingayat community and Yediyurappa happy. Bommai joined BJP just before the 2008 assembly elections. He served as water resources minister between 2008 and 2013 and home minister from July 2019.

In pic: Karnataka Governor Thawarchand Gehlot administers the oath of office to new Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, at a ceremony at Raj Bhavan, in Bengaluru.

The 61-year-old three-time MLA from Shiggaon in Haveri district in north Karnataka is the son of late former chief minister and ex-Union minister S R Bommai. It makes the Bommais the second father-son duo to become CMs in the state.

A mechanical engineering graduate who started out by working for the Tatas in Pune, Bommai’s name was not prominent among those thought to be in the reckoning for chief minister until Tuesday.

Bommai’s loyalists are hopeful that he would gain acceptance because the community in the second half of the 1980s supported his father, who lost power in an unceremonious way when his government was dismissed.

The S R Bommai case that the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the late leader is cited as the important case study in Centre-state relationship.