The appointment of Basavaraj Bommai as the new Karnataka Chief Minister on Tuesday, makes him join the ranks of an elite club where a CM’s son went on to become a chief minister himself.
Bommai is the son of SR Bommai, former Karnataka CM, who served the office from 1996-98 — making them the second father-son duo in the state to join the club after JD(S)’s HD Deve Gowda and his son HD Kumaraswamy. Deve Gowda served as the 14th CM of Karnataka from 1994-96, while Kumaraswamy held the post from 2018-19.
There are several other prominent examples of this holy grail of Indian politics such as SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and son Akhilesh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh. Mulayam, the founder of the Samajwadi Party, served as the UP chief minister for three straight terms, while Akhilesh sat on the CM’s chair from 2012 to 2017.
Similar is the case in Odisha where Biju Janata Dal’s Biju Patnaik became the third chief minister of the state, while his son Naveen Patnaik served as the 13th and current CM of the state.
YSR Jagan Mohan Reddy, the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, is another example, who also stepped into the shoes of his chief minister father, Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy.
In Tamil Nadu, DMK’s M Karunanidhi and MK Stalin are other prominent examples. Karunanidhi served as the chief minister for nearly two decades spanning five terms — from 1969-2011. His son MK Stalin followed in his father’s footsteps by becoming the eighth and current CM of Tamil Nadu.
Other examples of this interesting phenomenon of Indian politics are Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna, a Congress leader who served as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, while his eldest son Vijay Bahuguna, a BJP member, was the 6th chief minister of Uttarakhand.
Shankarrao Chavan and Ashok Chavan are another father-son duo who became CMs of Maharashtra. Shankarrao, a Congress member, served twice as the Maharashtra CM, while his son held the post once from 2008-10.
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