Influential Lingayat leader sworn into NDA 3.0 council of ministers

When hurt and bitter Somanna, who held state BJP president BY Vijayendra responsible for his twin defeats from Varuna assembly constituency in Mysuru district and Chamarajanagar segment in the 2023 Assembly polls, wanted to leave the BJP, it was Gowda who counseled him to be patient.

Newly appointed Union minister V Somanna, who had contemplated quitting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and joining the Congress earlier this year, should be thankful to former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda for his current position. When hurt and bitter Somanna, who held state BJP president BY Vijayendra responsible for his twin defeats from Varuna assembly constituency in Mysuru district and Chamarajanagar segment in the 2023 Assembly polls, wanted to leave the BJP, it was Gowda who counseled him to be patient.

Newly-appointed Union minister V Somanna. (PTI)

In January this year, Gowda, who used to describe Somanna as his “Dattu Putra” (adopted son) when the latter was in the Janata Dal (Secular-JDS), held a meeting with him. “He (Gowda) explained the political situation of the state and the country and instructed me not to make any decision (to quit the party) as Narendra Modi should become the PM again,” Somanna told the media after the meeting.

In the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls, of the 17 seats won by the BJP, five are represented by the Veerashaiva-Lingayat community. Among the five Lingayat MPs elected, Somanna being picked by the BJP central leadership to be in the Union cabinet over his community MPs BY Raghavendra, Basavaraj Bommai, Jagadish Shettar, and PC Gaddigoudar has its reasons. According to people familiar with the BJP’s inner workings, Somanna is seen as an influential Lingayat leader, second only to former chief minister BS Yediyurappa. His connection with the Lingayat mutts, particularly the Siddaganga Mutt in Tumakuru, is significant.

Sulking after his defeat in two assembly constituencies and also after Yediyurappa’s son BY Vijayendra was made the state party chief, a post Somanna had coveted, he held a show of strength at the Siddaganga Mutt premises in January this year. He deliberately invited local Congress leaders, including state home minister G Parameshwara, to the event to send a message to the BJP top brass of his unhappiness and his intentions to join the Congress.

“No leader should suffer for being loyal to the party and obeying orders of the high command,” Somanna had said at several public functions after his defeat. “I did not lose because of the Congress. The high command should instruct them (Yediyurappa and Vijayendra) not to trouble me anymore in the future,” he said.

Somanna also admitted that it was his biggest mistake to leave his constituency, Govindrajnagar in Bengaluru, and accept the BJP’s decision to contest against CM Siddaramaiah in Varuna and C Puttarangashetty of the Congress in Chamarajanagar. “It was the biggest mistake. What was I to do when I was asked to contest with just a few days left and Union minister Amit Shah sat in my house for two to three hours and badgered me,” Somanna had reportedly told the Siddaganga Mutt’s seers. Later, he met Shah and requested him to accommodate him in the Rajya Sabha and put him in charge of three Lok Sabha constituencies, which the party was likely to win.

During the poll campaign in Varuna, Shah told the voters that if Somanna was elected from the constituency, “I promise, we will make him something big and the constituency will be a model one for the entire country.”

After being in political wilderness for 10 months, the BJP’s decision to field him from Tumakuru Lok Sabha opened new doors of hope for Somanna. In a close contest, he defeated SP Muddhanume Gowda of the Congress by a margin of 175,594 votes.

After his name was announced, Somanna told the media, “I am happy that I am getting an opportunity to serve under Modi. I will fulfill his expectations. The party must have recognised my hard work and rewarded me.”