The announcement that Basavaraj Bommai will be the next Karnataka chief minister, made by his predecessor BS Yediyurappa, is a significant gesture to reassure the influential Lingayat community that their interests are safe with BJP and the party will not lose sight of them. Bommai is a Lingayat, and his elevation after the exit of BSY, seen as the tallest leader of the community, was crafted to try and ensure the support remains intact, given that it was a factor that helped make BJP a dominant force in Karnataka and gave it a foothold in the south.
he exit of Yediyurappa was anticipated for long and the BJP brass was equally committed to keeping BSY in good humour, keen not to repeat Congress’s mistake in the 1990s when it sacked Veerendra Patil as CM and paid a heavy electoral price. BJP has kept in mind its own ham-handed removal of Yediyurappa in 2009 in the wake of adverse findings of the Lokayukta that saw him form his own front Karnataka Janata Paksha to contest the 2013 assembly polls, reducing the ruling BJP to third position. However, in the 2018 assembly polls, Yediyurappa was the BJP face and the party emerged as the single-largest party although it fell seven short of the majority mark.
News Source : The Print
