Three ex-CMs from NDA in poll fray heats up campaign scene in Congress-ruled Karnataka
NDA are in the Lok Sabha race in Karnataka, heating up the campaign scene in the Congress-governed state. Basavaraj Bommai (Haveri), Jagadish Shettar (Belgaum) and H D Kumaraswamy (Mandya) joined a long list of predecessors who wanted to play an innings in national politics and many of them successfully as well.
While Bommai and Shettar — both Lingayats — are from the BJP; Kumaraswamy, a Vokkaliga, is the JD(S) state President and son of former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda.
Of the total 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, BJP is contesting in 25 and JD(S), which joined the NDA in September last year, in three. There have been a total of 23 Chief Ministers of Karnataka (known as Mysore state before November one, 1973) since 1947; 14 of them have also served as members of Lok Sabha, and two Rajya Sabha. Seven of them — K C Reddy, Kengal Hanumanthaiah, Veerendra Patil, Gundu Rao, S Bangarappa, Veerappa Moily and B S Yediyurappa — shifted to national politics by becoming MPs, after demitting the office.
An equal number became Chief Minister after their stint as Parliamentarians — S Nijalingappa, H D Deve Gowda, J H Patel, S M Krishna, N Dharam Singh, H D Kumaraswamy, and D V Sadananda Gowda. S R Bommai and Ramakrishna Hegde had their Parliamentary innings as members of Rajya Sabha.
Basavaraj Bommai is making his debut in the Lok Sabha polls, almost a year after the BJP fared poorly in the assembly polls held in May last year, when he was at the helm.
