A senior leader of undivided Janata Parivar and former chief minister, Somappa Rayappa Bommai died here on Wednesday.

He was born on June 6, 1924 in Karadagi village of Savanur taluk to Rayappa and Shivamma.

Rameshwar Thakur Governor Rameshwar Thakur has condoled the demise of Mr Bommai and hailed him as a man of great conviction and political sagacity. In his death, the country has lost a person of high moral values, he said.

H D Deve Gowda “We had worked together for four decades at at the State and the Centre. We had some differences, so, we separated. Now, I have lost a good friend. I pray to God to give peace to his soul.”

Mallikarjun Kharge “Mr Bommai was a noble leader who fought for the unification of Karnataka. As CM and Union Minister, he has initiated many programmes for the welfare of people.”-

He served as Karnataka chief minister for 10 months in 1988 and as Union human resource minister in 1996.
Having studied till seventh standard in Kamadolli village of Kundagola taluk, he had his first lessons in socialism from his mother who used to feed poor children.

He studied in Lamington High School of Hubli till Class X and did PU in Karnataka College, Dharwad. Though he wished to become a doctor, he studied law in Belgaum as per his parents’ wishes.

He got attracted to Leftist ideology and joined MN Roy’s Radical Humanist Party of West Bengal.

The British issued an arrest warrant against him for participating in freedom struggle under Murugodu Mahadevappa in Hubli. He escaped and toured the country. It was then he invited Subhash Chandra Bose to Hubli and held a public meeting.

In 1962, he unsuccessfully contested for Legislative Assembly as an Independent from Kundagola. He entered Assembly in 1967 from same constituency as Lok Sevaka Sangha candidate.

In 1969, he joined Congress on insistence of then CM Veerendra Patil. When Congress split, he joined Patil’s Samstha Congress.
Mr Bommai lost the Assembly elections in 1971. However, he was elected to Legislative Council through local bodies in 1972. From 1975, he worked as Opposition leader in the Council. He went underground for some time following his fight against Emergency. In 1977, he became the State Janata Party vice-president.

He suffered his first health setback in 1978 when he was admitted to Victoria Hospital here following a heart attack.

In 1980, Mr Bommai was in the forefront of Navalgund and Naragund farmers’ struggle. The same year, he was appointed State Janata Party president.

He worked hard to form a Janata Ranga by joining with Kranti Ranga to form a non-Congress Government. As a result, Janata Ranga won the 1983 elections and Mr Ramakrishna Hegde became chief minister.

He worked for the rejuvenation of government-owned industries as Industries Minister in Mr Hegde’s Cabinet. Electronics City was his brain-child. He encouraged the setting up of the first MNC IT firm in the State - Texas Instruments - in Bangalore.

In 1985, he was re-elected to the Assembly. At this time, State was hit by drought. He travelled to all regions of the State and built goshalas for providing water to cattle.

In 1988, he was elected chief minister. He played a major role in the establishment of Janata Dal. But, he couldn’t his position for long. Then governor Venkatasubbaiah removed his government.

This cut short his dream of giving land to the landless. He went to the Supreme Court. The court gave the judgement in favour of Bommai holding that legislature should become the forum to test government’s majority. This judgement is significant till this day.

In 1990, he became national president of Janata Dal. In 1992, he was elected to Rajya Sabha from Orissa. In 1996, when JD came to power at the Centre, he became human resource develpment minister.

Bommai ensured the State universities received sufficient aid. He took several measures for setting up IIM in Indore and formed UR Rao Committee to recommend locations for setting up IITs.

In 1998, he was re-elected to Rajya Sabha from Karnataka. JD got divided into JD (U) and (S). He identified himself with JD(S) and played mediator between JD(U) leader Hegde and JD(S) president H D Deve Gowda groups.

Yielding to pressure from leaders, he became the president of Akhila Bharatha Pragatipara Janata Dal formed by second-line leaders. Though he had to leave his association with Mr Gowda, he was aggrieved the party could not be re-united.

After he retired from Rajya Sabha in 2004, he withdrew from active politics. His health had started deteriorating.
In June last, his health worsened but he recovered soon. Within a few days, he was hospitalised again.