Advertisement
On July 28, 2021 BJP party sprung a surprise by naming BS Bommai as Karnataka chief minister though his name had never figured in those vying for the post.
The first big challenge before him is the expansion of the Ministry as he will have to navigate through the cabinet formation exercise by maintaining a balance between factions within the ruling BJP in the state.
Bommai began his political career with Janata Dal (United) and was elected to the Karnataka Legislative Council twice from 1998 to 2004.
However in 2007, the health of the Karnataka unit of the Janata Dal (United) and one of its veteran leaders SR Bommai was in critical condition.
Advertisement
When SR Bommai died on October 10, 2007, Basavaraj Bommai was politically orphaned and the JDU stared at a bleak future.
Bommai had first approached the Congress based on the much commonality of the party’s ideology with JD(U), however, it was reported that Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge did not want him the party for unknown reasons.
After days he finally approached BS Yediyurappa and the BJP.
Yediyurappa was baying for vengeance after the BJP-JD(S) coalition collapsed as HD Kumaraswamy did not transfer the State’s chief ministership to him after two years as was agreed.
Allowing Bommai into BJP paid rich dividends to the party as its won the elections and consolidated the Lingayat votebank.
Bommai was fielded from the Shiggaon Assembly constituency winning it by a good margin of votes and was made the Water Resources Minister.
Soon he also became one of the closest lieutenants of Yediyurappa and stood by him in all decisions of the government.
Later, when Yediyurappa was made to resign as the chief minister after he was embroiled in a corruption case related to a land deal, he left the BJP and formed the Karnataka Janata Party (KJP) in 2012.
Bommai however decided to stay in the BJP which angered Yediyurappa.
A year later when Yediyurappa returned to the BJP, it was expected that he would exact revenge on Bommai for betraying him but things went the other way.
Yediyurappa and Bommai both bonded well again and worked on strengthening the party.
The duo’s efforts worked and the BJP toppled Siddaramaiah’s Congress government in the 2018 Assembly election without winning an outright majority.
When Yediyurappa decided to bring down the Congress-JD(S) coalition government, Bommai was solidly behind him and when the BJP finally came to power in 2019, Bommai was given the second most powerful home ministry.
As before, Bommai essentially became Yediyurappa’s shadow.
When finally Yediyurappa’s political sun set in July 2021, Bommai’s loyalty to him paid off especially when Bommai was least expected to become the chief minister as the names of other State and national leaders in the party were doing the rounds.
It was reported that when he was declared as the chief minister, the situation mirrored that of his father’s SR Bommai in 1988.
Back then Rama Krishna Hegde had resigned as the chief minister. In a surprise move, he made SR Bommai – who was confident of being made the chief minister and was smoking cigarettes and watching the movie “Zanjeer” at home – as his successor.
Basavaraj Bommai also experienced the same situation. Sure that he was going to be the next chief minister, he kept himself from lobbying soon after Yediyurappa’s resignation.
Notably, this is the second time in Karnataka’s political history that a father-son duo have held the chief minister (CM)’s post.
Apart from the political feat, Basavaraj’s appointment also brings the focus back on a legacy in law that has been associated with his father, SR Bommai for almost three decades now.
Bommai has a 22 months tenure ahead of him before the assembly elections come up and if there is no leadership dissent in the saffron party, however, no one is 100% sure if he can complete his term or will he see same fate as Senior Bommai, as there are few senior leaders who are upset over his appointment.
For instance, former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, who was Minister in the Yediyurappa cabinet, said he has decided not to be part of the new cabinet, considering that he is senior to CM Bommai.
“As I am a former Chief Minister and have seniority, I have decided not to be a part of the new cabinet.I was Minister in the Yediyurappa cabinet despite being a former Chief Minister as he (Yediyurappa) is senior to me and I had worked in his government in the past too, but now keeping, seniority and morality in view I am not ready to be part of the new cabinet,” he told new channels.
Another challenge Bommai will be facing is cabinet expansion, there are several ministerial aspirants among the party old guard, and legislators who had joined the BJP after quitting the Congress-JD(S) coalition in 2019.
Bommai, who alone took oath, succeeding BS Yediyurappa, said he will try to expand the Cabinet soon.
But will Basavaraj will leave a mark as SR Bommai did in changing the way State governments and Centre worked together?
Though Bommai’s father had a brief stint as CM of the state in the 1980s, he managed to make a great impact in Indian politics.
Every time when there is a crisis of numbers in an assembly, the S R Bommai landmark verdict is cited. Known as the S R Bommai vs Union of India case, in this verdict the Supreme Court discussed at length Article 356 of the Indian Constitution.
It was in this verdict that the Supreme Court laid down guidelines that curbed blatant misuse of Article 356 of the Constitution which allowed President rules to be imposed over state governments.
What is SR Bommai case?
In 1985, the Janata Party won the assembly elections in Karnataka and Ramakrishna Hegde became Chief Minister of Karnataka. However, Hegde had to leave the throne following the snooping charges and he was replaced by SR Bommai, also of the Janata Party, in 1988.
Some legislators who were defected from the party and presented a letter to the then Governor P Venkatasubbaiah stating their decision to withdraw support to the Bommai government.
In April 1989, the Governor sent a report to the Centre recommending President’s Rule citing breakdown of constitutional machinery, as provided under Article 356. This report was sent despite the Governor receiving 19 letters from Bommai asking for an opportunity to prove his party’s majority in the assembly.
Bommai had also presented him with a copy of the resolution passed by the Janata Dal legislature party in his support, However, the Governor chose not to pay heed to the demand of a floor test.
Later that month, the government of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi at the Centre dismissed Bommai’s government using Article 356, without giving Bommai a chance to prove his majority, and imposed President’s Rule.
Bommai then challenged the proclamation of President’s Rule and the Governor’s report in this regard before Supreme Court after his appeal at Karnataka high court wen in vain.
Supreme Court rarely uses the word “Awesome” in its judgments, but when the nine-judge Constitution Bench sat down to deliver the historic verdict in Bommai’s case, it called the authority under the Constitution for imposing President’s Rule an “awesome power indeed”.
It is the apex court’s judgment in SR Bommai Vs Union of India, delivered in March 1994, that defined the contours of Article 356 of the Constitution, which allows for President’s Rule in states, and acknowledged various perplexing issues in the realm of Centre-State relations.
It laid down legal principles for a lawful and valid exercise of the power under Article 356, while underscoring the federal structure and roles of the President and Governor.
S R Bommai vs Union of India judgment still resonates:
Bommai’s ruling prescribes important constitutional guarantees against the abuse of Article 356 and for the maintenance of the federal structure. The case’s judgment has earned the distinction of being the most quoted verdict in the country’s political history, and continues to resonate in contemporary times.
Just take a recent instance in Karnataka:
In May 2018, Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) approached the Supreme Court against the order of the Karnataka Governor to allow BJP’s BS Yediyurappa to form the government in the state.
Lending credence to Bommai’s judgment, the court, after a pre-dawn hearing, ordered an immediate floor test. Yediyurappa later resigned on the floor of the House without facing the floor test.
Authored by Harsha Rao & SowbhagyaLakshmi