Basavaraj Bommai ministry

Basavaraj Bommai ministry

33rd Ministry of Karnataka
2021–2023
Basavaraj Bommai in 2023
Date formed28 July 2021
Date dissolved13 May 2023
People and organisations
Thawarchand Gehlot
Basavaraj Bommai
None
No. of ministers
29
Ministers removed
2
Total no. of members
30
Member parties
  Bharatiya Janata Party
Status in legislature
Majority
Opposition party
Opposition leader
Siddaramaiah
(Assembly)
B. K. Hariprasad
(Council)
History
Election2018
Legislature term15th Karnataka Assembly
PredecessorThird Yediyurappa ministry
SuccessorSecond Siddaramaiah ministry

The Basavaraj Bommai ministry was the 33rd Council of Ministers of Karnataka, headed by Basavaraj Bommai of the Bharatiya Janata Party. It was sworn in on 28 July 2021 and served until 13 May 2023, when it was succeeded by the Second Siddaramaiah ministry. The Governor of Karnataka, Thawarchand Gehlot, administered the oath of office and secrecy to Bommai at the Glass House of Raj Bhavan, Bengaluru. The ministry had no Deputy Chief Minister throughout its tenure.

Background

Basavaraj Bommai

Basavaraj Bommai (born 28 January 1960) is a mechanical engineering graduate from B. V. Bhoomaraddi College of Engineering & Technology, Hubballi, who worked briefly at Tata Motors in Pune before entering politics. He began his political career with the Janata Dal in the mid-1990s, serving as General Secretary of the party and as a member of the Karnataka Legislative Council from the Dharwad local authorities constituency in 1998 and again in 2004. He joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in February 2008 and was first elected to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly from Shiggaon (Haveri district) in the same year, a seat he has held since. He is the son of S. R. Bommai, the 11th Chief Minister of Karnataka, making him and his father the second father-son duo in Karnataka's history - alongside H. D. Deve Gowda and H. D. Kumaraswamy - to have each served as chief minister. A member of the Veerashaiva-Lingayat community, he served as Minister for Water Resources under three successive chief ministers from 2008 to 2013, and as Minister for Home Affairs, Law, Parliamentary Affairs, and Co-operation in the Fourth Yediyurappa ministry from July 2019.[1][2]

Leadership transition

B. S. Yediyurappa resigned as Chief Minister on 26 July 2021, on the second anniversary of his government's formation, ending months of speculation about his departure. The BJP legislature party met the following day at a private hotel in Bengaluru, with Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and G. Kishan Reddy serving as central observers. The party unanimously elected Bommai as the new leader of the legislature party, following which he drove to Raj Bhavan alongside Yediyurappa to stake claim to form the government. Governor Thawarchand Gehlot administered the oath of office to Bommai as the 23rd Chief Minister of Karnataka at the Glass House of Raj Bhavan at 11 am on 28 July 2021.[3]

Cabinet expansion

A week after his own swearing-in, Bommai inducted 29 ministers into his cabinet on 4 August 2021, with the oath administered by Governor Gehlot at Raj Bhavan. Of the 29 ministers, 23 had previously served in the Yediyurappa cabinet, while six - V. Sunil Kumar, Araga Jnanendra, Munirathna, Halappa Achar, Shankar Patil Munenakoppa, and B. C. Nagesh - were new faces. Ten of the inductees were legislators who had defected from the Congress-JD(S) coalition in 2019, facilitating the collapse of the Second H. D. Kumaraswamy ministry and the BJP's return to power. No Deputy Chief Minister was appointed. The cabinet's composition included eight Lingayats, seven Vokkaligas, seven OBCs, three Scheduled Caste members, two Brahmins, one Scheduled Tribe member, and one woman - Shashikala Jolle.[4][5]

Policies and legislation

OBC reservation and Muslim quota

In its final cabinet meeting before the 2023 Karnataka Legislative Assembly election, held on 24 March 2023, the Bommai government scrapped the 4% reservation for Muslims under the OBC Category 2B and redistributed it equally between the Vokkaliga (new Category 2C, raised from 4% to 6%) and Veerashaiva-Lingayat (new Category 2D, raised from 5% to 7%) communities. Muslims were moved to the 10% Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) category. Bommai stated that there was no constitutional provision for reservation on religious grounds and framed the decision as a proactive measure to forestall judicial challenge. The move, coming one month before polling, was widely interpreted as an effort to consolidate the support of the two dominant OBC communities ahead of the elections. The decision was subsequently challenged before the Supreme Court; the incoming Second Siddaramaiah ministry administered reservations under court-directed status quo, leaving the underlying order in contested legal limbo.[6][7]

Controversies

K. S. Eshwarappa resignation

Santosh Patil, a Belagavi-based contractor hired by the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department in 2019 to construct roads worth ₹4 crore in Hindalga village, was found dead at a hotel in Udupi on 12 April 2022. In a purported WhatsApp suicide note, Patil accused RDPR Minister K. S. Eshwarappa and his aides of demanding a 40% commission for the release of payments due to him. Police registered a case of abetment of suicide against Eshwarappa. Despite initially rejecting calls for his resignation, Eshwarappa submitted his resignation to Bommai on the evening of 15 April 2022, after the BJP central leadership - including national president J. P. Nadda - directed him to step down to prevent further electoral damage to the party. Eshwarappa stated his resignation was intended to prevent embarrassment to his party and expressed confidence that he would be cleared by the investigation.[8][9]

Death of Umesh Katti

Umesh Katti, the Minister for Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs and Forest, died on 6 September 2022 due to cardiac complications. Katti had represented the Hukkeri constituency in Belagavi district and was a senior BJP leader who had served across multiple ministries since 2010. Chief Minister Bommai described him as "a very close friend" and called his death "a huge loss for the state."[10]

Council of Ministers

PortfolioMinisterTook officeLeft officeParty
  • Chief Minister and also in-charge of:
  • Department of Finance
  • Department of Cabinet Affairs
  • Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms
  • Department of Intelligence
  • Department of Bengaluru Development
  • All other departments not allocated to any Minister.
28 July 202120 May 2023 BJP
Minister of Major and Medium Irrigation4 August 202120 May 2023 BJP
Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj4 August 202115 April 2022 BJP
15 April 202220 May 2023 BJP
Minister of Revenue4 August 202120 May 2023 BJP
  • Minister of Transport
  • Minister of Tribal Welfare
4 August 202120 May 2023 BJP
  • Minister of Housing
  • Minister of Infrastructure Development
4 August 202120 May 2023 BJP
  • Minister of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs
  • Minister of Forest
4 August 20216 September 2022 BJP
6 September 202220 May 2023 BJP
  • Minister of Ports and Inland Transport
  • Minister of Fisheries
4 August 202120 May 2023 BJP
  • Minister of Law
  • Minister of Parliamentary Affairs
  • Minister of Minor Irrigation
4 August 202120 May 2023 BJP
Minister of Home Affairs4 August 202120 May 2023 BJP
  • Minister of Higher Education
  • Minister of Information Technology and Biotechnology
  • Minister of Science and Technology
  • Minister of Skill Development
4 August 202120 May 2023 BJP
Minister of Public Works4 August 202120 May 2023 BJP
  • Minister of Environment
  • Minister of Tourism
4 August 202120 May 2023 BJP
  • Minister of Environment
  • Minister of Tourism
4 August 202120 May 2023 BJP
  • Minister of Social Welfare
  • Minister of Backward Classes Welfare
4 August 202120 May 2023 BJP
Minister of Animal Husbandry4 August 202120 May 2023 BJP
Minister of Large and Medium Enterprises4 August 202120 May 2023 BJP
Minister of Labour4 August 202120 May 2023 BJP
Minister of Co-operation4 August 202120 May 2023 BJP
Minister of Agriculture4 August 202120 May 2023 BJP
Minister of Urban Development4 August 202120 May 2023 BJP
  • Minister of Health and Family Welfare
  • Minister of Medical Education
4 August 202120 May 2023 BJP
Minister of Excise4 August 202120 May 2023 BJP
  • Minister of Muzrai
  • Minister of Haj and Waqf
4 August 202120 May 2023 BJP
  • Minister of Municipal Administration
  • Minister of Small Scale Industries
  • Minister of Public Sector Industries
4 August 202120 May 2023 BJP
  • Minister of Youth Empowerment and Sports
  • Minister of Sericulture
4 August 202120 May 2023 BJP
Minister of Primary and Secondary Education4 August 202120 May 2023 BJP
  • Minister of Energy
  • Minister of Kannada and Culture
4 August 202120 May 2023 BJP
  • Minister of Mines and Geology
  • Minister of Women and Child Development
4 August 202120 May 2023 BJP
  • Minister of Handloom and Textiles
  • Minister of Sugarcane Development and Sugar
4 August 202120 May 2023 BJP
  • Minister of Horticulture
  • Minister of Planning, Programme Monitoring and Statistics
4 August 202120 May 2023 BJP

District-wise representation

Representation of cabinet ministers by district (as constituted at formation, August 2021)
  1. Bagalkote (6.67%)
  2. Belagavi (6.67%)
  3. Bellary (3.33%)
  4. Bengaluru Urban (23.3%)
  5. Bengaluru Rural (3.33%)
  6. Bidar (3.33%)
  7. Chikkaballapura (3.33%)
  8. Chitradurga (3.33%)
  9. Dakshina Kannada (3.33%)
  10. Dharwad (3.33%)
  11. Gadag (3.33%)
  12. Haveri (6.67%)
  13. Koppal (3.33%)
  14. Mandya (3.33%)
  15. Shivamogga (6.67%)
  16. Tumakuru (6.67%)
  17. Udupi (6.67%)
  18. Uttara Kannada (3.33%)
District Cabinet Ministers Name of Ministers
Bagalkote 2
Belagavi 2
Ballari 1
Bengaluru Urban 7
Bengaluru Rural 1
Bidar 1
Chikkaballapura 1
Chitradurga 1
Dakshina Kannada 1
Dharwad 1
Gadag 1
Haveri 2
Koppal 1
Mandya 1
Shivamogga 2
Tumakuru 2
Udupi 2
Uttara Kannada 1
Total 30 N/a

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Bommai sworn in as K'taka CM, to form Cabinet soon". Hindustan Times. 28 July 2021.
  2. ↑ "Basavaraj Bommai: Man with roots in Janata parivar". Madhyamam Online.
  3. ↑ "Basavaraj Bommai to take oath as Karnataka CM at 11 am on Wednesday". Deccan Herald. 28 July 2021.
  4. ↑ "Karnataka cabinet expansion: Full list of CM Bommai's 29 ministers". The News Minute. 4 August 2021.
  5. ↑ "29 ministers inducted into Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai's cabinet". Business Standard. 4 August 2021.
  6. ↑ "Bommai govt scraps 4% Muslim quota, distributes it among Vokkaligas, Lingayats". Deccan Herald. 24 March 2023.
  7. ↑ "Karnataka scraps Muslim quota to increase reservation for Lingayats, Vokkaligas". Outlook India. 25 March 2023.
  8. ↑ "Eshwarappa resigns as minister after furore over contractor's death". Deccan Herald. 15 April 2022.
  9. ↑ "Karnataka Minister KS Eshwarappa resigns amid row over contractor's death". The Tribune. 15 April 2022.
  10. ↑ "Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai condoles demise of Minister Umesh Katti, calls it huge loss for state". Deccan Herald. 7 September 2022.
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