Three former CMs all set to begin their innings in Lok Sabha

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Bengaluru: Three former Chief Ministers from Karnataka — Basavaraj Bommai, Jagadish Shettar and H D Kumaraswamy — on Tuesday joined a long list of their predecessors who went on to play an innings in national politics by winning the Lok Sabha polls.

For Bommai and Shettar of the BJP, this will be their first stint in the Lok Sabha, whereas Kumaraswamy, the JD(S) state president and son of former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, has been a member of parliament in the past.

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Of the total 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, BJP contested 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 in the 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 office. Bommai and Shettar will now join this list.

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.

Bommai’s father S R Bommai and Ramakrishna Hegde had their Parliamentary innings as members of Rajya Sabha.

Kadidal Manjappa, B D Jatti, S R Kanthi, Devraj Urs, and incumbent Siddaramaiah are the CMs who have stayed away from national politics.

Basavaraj Bommai, who was chief minister from July 2021 to May 2023, has won from the Haveri Lok Sabha seat, while Shettar, who won from the Belgaum seat, was CM from July 2012 to May 2013.

Kumaraswamy, who has won Lok Sabha polls from Mandya, was chief minister between May 2018 and July 2019, and from February 2006 to October 2007.

He, in fact, forayed into electoral politics by successfully contesting the Kanakapura Lok Sabha seat in 1996. In 2009 again he had successfully contested the Lok Sabha polls from Bangalore Rural.