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Journalism of Courage
For an unlikely Chief Minister, Basavaraj Bommai, 63, had got off to a good start. In the second month of his tenure, on September 2, 2021, he got a leg-up when Union Home Minister Amit Shah — on his first visit to Karnataka after Bommai took over — endorsed him as the man to lead the BJP into the 2023 Assembly elections in Karnataka. “Bommai has focused on small things. He has not embraced the VVIP culture… In Delhi, those who observe Karnataka closely are of the view that the BJP has strengthened itself after making Basavaraj Bommai the Chief Minister,” Shah had said.
But that honeymoon period barely lasted six months with a gradual piling up of woes against Bommai — within the party, the central leadership, the state government and public at large. There were complaints of a lack of will in tackling corruption and large-scale indecisiveness on pending and new projects.
It is corruption finally that the Congress latched on to, and built upon, to mount a campaign against the BJP, resulting in the decisive victory on Saturday.
During the campaign, as it became clear that Bommai had left barely a mark, he was sidelined, with the central leadership setting the agenda and the narrative.
Now, after the election loss, Bommai is likely to find himself in the cold, in a party where he was anyway still trying to find his feet, having crossed over from the JD(S) as late as 2008.
Bommai was groomed in the socialist and secular politics of the Janata Dal, going back to his father and former CM S R Bommai, who was an ardent follower of the radical humanist movement of Leftist leader M N Roy.
Bommai’s first foray into politics happened in 1996-97, when he was appointed political secretary to then CM J H Patel of the Janata Dal. But it wasn’t until 2008, after his father’s death in 2007, that he contested elections. This was because the senior Bommai didn’t want to use his credentials to promote his son.
Following his father’s death in October 2007, with Bommai’s political career at the crossroads, he was invited to join the BJP by the party’s biggest face then and Lingayat leader B S Yediyurappa. Bommai adopted Shiggaon, a constituency bordering the Dharwad region, which did not have a BJP leader, and won the seat in 2008, and in 2013 and 2018 as well.
One of the hallmarks of Bommai’s time in the BJP before he became CM, including two tenures as minister, was his ability to stay away from controversies and proving his knack for governance. He was the water resources minister between 2008-2013 and in 2019-2021, the minister for home, law and parliamentary affairs.
As home minister, Bommai toed the Centre’s line on issues like the National Register of Citizens and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. Bommai’s friend and ex-Congress MP V S Ugrappa said that was expected of him. “He is a good listener on matters that are of interest to the BJP. If the high command wants something, he is unlikely to say no.”
It’s this that stood Bommai in good stead after he became the fourth BJP chief minister of Karnataka in July 2021, even when the ties between his benefactor Yediyurappa and the dominant BJP central leadership took a dip, and when his governance came under question.
A government official earlier told The Indian Express: “As home minister of Karnataka, Bommai had done well during the pandemic years. The positivity that reflected in his initial months as CM seems to have disappeared.”
Senior BJP legislators spoke of a “governance paralysis”, with files such as those pertaining to projects in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike pending.
Bommai’s indecision was also blamed on the fact that he leaned on the national leadership before any crucial issue. The most glaring example of this was the number of trips Bommai made to New Delhi for something like Cabinet expansion, only to return empty-handed.
One of the low points of his government was the Bitcoin controversy of October 2021. It followed the arrest of an alleged international hacker, Srikrishna Ramesh alias Sriki, in November 2020 by the Bengaluru Police. The Opposition alleged that many police and government officials received kickbacks in the form of Bitcoins from the hacker gang after the arrest. Bommai was home minister when the arrest occurred.
In November 2021, Bommai met the Prime Minister. Though Bommai said the PM made light of the Bitcoin issue, his visit came amid speculation that the BJP was considering a change of guard in Karnataka following the Opposition’s demands for an investigation.
Bommai entered this election with all this baggage, plus the renewed importance of Yediyurappa bearing down on him. Conscious of the fact, the BJP did not specifically name Bommai as its CM face. Instetad, it kept repeating a mantra of “combined leadership”, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi being the other half.
Sources said that while the BJP leadership, which has been seeking a passing of the baton from its old party structure in Karnataka, initially hoped to project Bommai as its new Lingayat face in place of Yediyurappa, things did not go according to plan. Hence, Bommai was hardly a presence in the BJP’s campaign, with Modi the face.
In December 2021, on a visit to his constituency, Bommai had turned tearful as he lamented the temporary nature of all positions of power, saying: “This life is not permanent, we do not know how long we will live. In such a situation, posts of power are also not permanent.”
He might be reminded of those words now.
