Basavaraj Somappa Bommai is a former chief minister of Karnataka, who held the position from July 18, 2021 to May 2023. Hours after the Bharatiya Janata Party lost the assembly elections on May 13, 2023, he resigned from the position of the CM. The saffron party was voted out of its only bastion in southern India, with the Congress registering a resounding victory by winning 136 out of 224 assembly seats. The defeat came despite a high-decibel poll campaign headlined by BJP bigwigs including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president JP Nadda in the state. Bommai was previously a member of the Janata Dal and Janata Dal (United). He is a Member of the Legislative Assembly in the legislature of Karnataka for Shiggaon, from where he has been elected four times since 2008. The year Bommai took the electoral plunge proved fortuitous. In 1999, the Janata Dal had split into the JD(S) and JD(U), led by Deve Gowda and J H Patel respectively, and the two factions had quickly dropped all pretences about the BJP being “ideologically untouchable”. In 1999, the JD(U) allied with the NDA for the 1999 Lok Sabha polls; in 2006, the JD(S) formed a coalition government with the BJP in Karnataka. On July 18, 2021, Bommai was sworn in as the 23rd Chief Minister of Karnataka. He replaced BS Yediyurappa, who resigned after being embroiled in a corruption scandal. Bommai's appointment was seen as a move by the BJP to consolidate its position in Karnataka ahead of the 2023 assembly elections. Born on January 28, 1960 in Hubballi, Karnataka, he is the son of SR Bommai, who was the Chief Minister of Karnataka from 1988 to 1990. Bommai studied at B. V. Bhoomaraddi College of Engineering and Technology in Hubballi, where he received a Bachelor of Engineering degree in civil engineering. After graduating, Bommai worked as an engineer for a few years before entering politics. In government, Bommai proved an efficient minister, steering the first Water Resources Ministry under three different CMs, and lately Home, Law and Parliamentary Affairs. Bommai is credited with getting to the Shiggaon region drinking water, irrigation for over 30,000 acres of dry land, cemented roads, a temple and educational institutions.