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Journalism of Courage
Former Karnataka Chief Minister S R Bommai, whose dismissal in 1989 led to a trend-setting judgment by the Supreme Court stipulating floor test as the sole yardstick for testing majority in case of doubt, died at a private hospital here after prolonged illness. He was 84.
Bommai is survived by two sons, including Basavaraj, a member of Legislative Council, and two daughters. The end for Bommai, who was instrumental in installing the first non-Congress Government in Karnataka in 1983, came at about 8.35 pm at a private hospital where he was undergoing treatment for about two months, Basavaraj, who was present at his father’s bedside, said.
With the state under the President’s rule, the Raj Bhavan announced a three-day state mourning as a mark of respect to the departed leader. A state funeral would be accorded to Bommai.
Governor Rameshwar Thakur and a host of political leaders, including former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and KPCC president M Mallikarjun Kharge, condoled the death of Bommai.
A freedom fighter and law graduate, Bommai plunged into politics through M N Roy’s Radical Democratic Party and was elected to the Assembly for the first time in 1967.
A staunch proponent of Janata Dal as a political force alternative to the Congress and BJP, Bommai played the key role in installing the first ever non-Congress Government in Karnataka in 1983.
Unfazed by the hung verdict thrown up by the 1983 polls in which Janata Party led by him could secure only 83 seats, Bommai managed to drum up support from the BJP, Kranti Ranga and independents to end decades long rule by the Congress by installing Ramakrishna Hegde as Chief Minister.
The crowning moment in Bommai’s political career came on August 13, 1988 when he became the Chief Minister as Hegde made way in the wake of a telephone-tapping scandal.
But Bommai’s tenure was short as the Congress Government at the Centre dismissed him as Chief Minister on April 21, 1989 after a section of his own partymen withdrew support to him.
Bommai moved the Supreme Court challenging his dismissal. The apex court gave a landmark judgment in what came to be known as S R Bommai versus Union of India case making floor test as the benchmark for testing majority of a head of Government in the event of doubt.
Bommai continued his efforts to unite splinter groups of Janata Parivar to build it as a formidable force but could not achieve it.
He floated his own outfit All India Progressive Janata Dal and remained its President till his death.
From a humble beginning in his political career, Bommai went on to have his share in national politics also when he headed the Janata Dal and served as Human Resource Minister in the H D Deve Gowda ministry in 1997. The two leaders later fell apart.
