Basavaraj S Bommai, home minister in BS Yediyurappa’s cabinet, will be the new chief minister of Karnataka. The 61-year-old Lingayat leader was picked to succeed BSY, as Yediyurappa is often referred to, at a meeting of BJP legislators on Tuesday evening. The oath ceremony will reportedly be held tomorrow.

“It is a big responsibility in the given situation. I will strive to work for the welfare of the poor. It will be pro-people and pro-poor people governance,” Karnataka CM elect Basavaraj S Bommai said.

Bommai, who is believed to be close to the outgoing CM, served on important portfolios under him. Yediyurappa was among the first to congratulate the chief minister elect. “Congratulations to Shri BS Bommai on being elected as the new Chief Minister of Karnataka. I am confident you will lead Karnataka in the path of development and fulfill the aspirations of people of the state,” his tweet read.

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The son of SR Bommai, a former Chief Minister of Karnataka, Basavaraj Bommai had joined the BJP from the Janata Dal United in 2008.

The name of Basavaraj S Bommai, an MLA from central Karnataka’s Haveri district, was proposed at a meeting of Karnataka BJP legislature party where two union ministers — Dharmendra Pradhan and G Kishan Reddy — were present as central observers.

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The BJP’s move to appoint Basavaraj Bommai is a calculated one, more of a need to hold on to the Lingayat community, which constitutes 16 per cent of the state’s population and has the ability to impact the results in about 100 of the 224 assembly seats in Karnataka assembly. The community was not in favour of removing BSY, a Lingayat strongman.

Among the challenges for the new chief minister, state’s 20th, will be to keep the flock together, quell dissent (two things that haunted Yediyurappa) and to maintain a fine balancing act in his cabinet formation. With a little over an year left for the assembly elections, Bommai will need to keep caste equations in mind and also the aspirations of the 16 MLAs who crossed over from the previous JD(S)-Congress government to help BJP form a government.

It will also be interesting to see what’s in store for Yediyurappa’s son BY Vijayendra. Currently the state BJP president, Vijayendra may be accommodated in the cabinet.

BS Yediyurappa, first BJP leader to head a state in south India, submitted his resignation on Monday, exactly two years after he took charge in 2019. Hemmed in by dissidence, resentment over his son’s alleged interference in administrative matters and the unwritten party rule that those over 75 years of age must retire, the Lingayat leader had hinted at his exit after meeting top leaders in Delhi earlier this month.

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For the outgoing chief minister, political uncertainty is nothing new. All his stints as chief minister have been rocky. He has had a 2-day, 7-day and also a 2-year tenure.

Karnataka, which has seen many political upheavals in the past, will also be hoping for some stability as a new dispensation takes charge.