With Basavaraj Bommai as new CM, BJP balances the vote math in Karnataka

Three-time legislator Basavaraj Bommai is Karnataka’s new chief minister, a decision the BJP took Tuesday keeping in mind several factors, including the long-pending demand for the post to be occupied by someone from north Karnataka.

With under two years to go for the 2023 elections, the BJP found a safe bet in Bommai as he ticked enough boxes: He is a Lingayat, the party’s traditional support base.

A former minister of Water Resources and Home Departments, Bommai is seen as a trusted aide of outgoing Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, also a Lingayat. But unlike Yediyurappa, who belongs to the Ganiga sub-sect, Bommai is a Sadar-Lingayat, which is not a dominant group within the Lingayats.

Karnataka's politics has been dominated by a few communities and among them, Lingayats are said to be one of the more prominent ones.

Read: Covid-19, floods, finances are new Karnataka CM Bommai’s priorities

In the days leading up to his resignation, prominent Lingayat leaders of the Congress and pontiffs threw their weight behind Yediyurappa. The Veerashaiva-Lingayat community is estimated to form about 16 per cent of the state’s population and is considered to be the BJP’s core support base. Yediyurappa belongs to this community.

Even a former Congress minister, Shivashankarappa met Yediyurappa to thank him for the government’s decision to install 12th-century social reformer Basavanna’s statue in Vidhana Soudha. Basavanna is considered the founder of the Lingayat sect.

Kudalasangama-based Panchamasali Mutt Seer Jagadguru Basava Jaya Mrityunjaya Swami demanded from the BJP to accord chief minister post to a leader from the Lingayat community belonging to North Karnataka.

Replacing Yediyurappa, the BJP risked losing the support of Lingayats, the party’s largest vote bank. Probably it is for this reason that Bommai has been elected as the new Chief Minister of Karnataka by the saffron party.