Dad's the way: Basavaraj Bommai follows in father's footsteps with new role

New Delhi, July 27: In a rare yet interesting phenomenon, Basavaraj Bommai was appointed as chief minister of Karnataka. With this Bommai joined an elite club where a Chief Minister's son has gone on to become a Chief Minister himself.

Ditto was the case when H D Kumaraswamy became Chief Minister of Karnataka after his father Deve Gowda served as the Chief Minister of Karnataka.

The case is smilar in Andhra Pradesh when Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy took charge as chief Minister. In Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav became Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh after his father Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Tamil Nadu CM M K Stalin's father M Karunanidhi was also the chief minister of the southern state. Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik's father Biju Patnaik was also a chief minister of that state.

Arunachal Pradesh CM Pema Khandu's father Dorji Khandu, who died in a helicopter crash in 2011, was also the chief minister. Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren's father Shibu Soren was also the state's chief minister.

From Abdullah family, three generations have been Jammu and Kashmir chief ministers: Sheikh Abdullah, his son Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah.

SR Bommai as CM

His father, SR Bommai, had also occupied the top post for a brief period in the 1980s, making a whole lot of difference to India politics.

He along with Ramakrishna Hegde and HD. Deve Gowda was instrumental in the Janata Party forming a government in the State for the first time in the State in 1983.

After Hegde quit on moral grounds, Bommai took charge as Chief Minister of the State on 13 August 1988 and his government was dismissed by the then Governor, P. Venkatasubbaiah, on 21 April 1989.

The dismissal was on the grounds that his government had lost its majority following large-scale defections engineered by several Janata Party leaders of the day. As the Governor denied permission to Bommai to prove his majority on the floor of the Legislature, he challenged this order in the Supreme Court.

SR Bommai v. Union of India

In a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court of India, discussed at length, the provisions of Article 356 of the Constitution of India and related issues. The apex court spelt out restrictions on the Centre's power to dismiss a state government, which had huge impact on Centre-State Relations. Since then, the cases of imposition of President's rule have reduced after this judgement.