Basavaraj Bommai arrived at Raj Bhawan at around 10:30 am on Wednesday for the oath-taking ceremony, accompanied by BS Yediyurappa.
Basavaraj Bommai, veteran leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), took oath on Wednesday as the 23rd chief minister of Karnataka, succeeding BS Yediyurappa for the post. Amid speculations about a crisis in the BJP's state unit, BS Yediyurappa resigned from his post on Monday. Bommai arrived at Raj Bhawan at around 10:30 am on Wednesday for the oath-taking ceremony, accompanied by BS Yediyurappa.
After HD Deve Gowda and HD Kumaraswamy, it is the second instance of a father-son duo becoming chief minister of Karnataka.
On Monday, after the meeting, BJP’s central observer and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said, “The new leader proposal was made by senior leader B S Yediyurappa and was supported by Govind Karjol, R Ashoka, K S Eshwarappa, B Sriramulu, S T Somashekar, Poornima Srinivas, and the newly elected legislature party leader and new Chief Minister will be Basavaraj Bommai."
Thanking PM Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president J P Nadda and parliamentary board members, Bommai said the legislature party has unanimously elected him as its leader and Yediyurappa has blessed him by proposing his name.
"I never expected it. However, I had a belief in my hard work and it has paid off," Basavaraj said after being elected as chief minister designate, adding that his government will be pro-people.
Who is Basavaraj Bommai?
Born on January 28, 1960, Basavaraj is the son of the former state chief minister SR Bommai. Basavaraj, who joined the BJP in 2008, belongs to the Sadara Lingayat community.
The Lingayat leader was elected to the state assembly five-time consecutively from the Shiggaon constituency in the Haveri district.
Basavaraj was the home minister in the Yediyurappa government. He was also the minister in charge of the districts of Haveri and Udupi.
A known Yediyurappa loyalist, Basavaraj belongs to the dominant Lingayat caste as the former chief minister.
Basavaraj was also part of the cabinets of former state chief ministers Sadananda Gowda and Jagadish Shettar.