Basavaraj Bommai at the helm, faces challenges

CM should not allow history to repeat itself

At the end of the day, the change of guard in Karnataka turned out to be a smooth affair with the BJP high command successfully placating former Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa by appointing his nominee Basavaraj Bommai as his replacement. Hitting two birds with one stone, the central leadership has taken the wind out of the sails of seers who were demanding the continuation of Yediyurappa by appointing another Lingayat as the new Chief Minister. Bommai’s ascension has surprised, rather disappointed many hardliners within the party who were expecting the mantle to fall on a strong right-winger with RSS links and some of the names that were doing the rounds earlier had also pointed in this direction. Bommai, who is not an original BJP man, having joined the party from the Janata Dal (S) in 2008, that is, only 13 years ago, is moored to socialistic and secular ideals, just like his father S R Bommai who was the Chief Minister in 1988-89. In a way, he also mirrors his mentor Yediyurappa who too had shunned the hard Hindutva agenda, preferring to tread the middle path.

Bommai has taken over the reins at a critical time when the state’s finances are in the doldrums with the revenue flow reduced to a trickle on account of Covid-related lockdowns, forcing the government to resort to huge borrowings to bridge the deficit. Even as the third wave of the pandemic looms large, heavy rains and floods have wreaked havoc across the state. Raising funds for developmental works at a time when countering Covid and rehabilitating those affected by the floods, would be a tall order. Thus, Bommai would be required to tighten the purse strings and be prudent in financial management by cutting all wasteful expenditure.

While running the government under the current situation might be a tightrope walk, a bigger challenge would be to manage the internal dynamics of the BJP. On the one hand, he has to mollify other hopefuls who have their daggers drawn to strike at the opportune moment, and on the other, he has to emerge out of the shadows of Yediyurappa, who many suspect, will try to run the government through proxy. Karnataka has seen chief ministers change three times since the 2018 assembly elections and Bommai would be required to display enormous political astuteness to ensure stability so that investor confidence is not impacted. Above all, his first task is to provide clean administration and keep the former CM’s family members as far away as possible from Vidhana Soudha, as Yediyurappa was accused of corruption and nepotism by his own party men, which ultimately led to his downfall. Bommai should not allow history to repeat itself.