Karnataka Housing Minister V Somanna was on the centre of a row on Sunday after a video that surfaced appeared to point out him slapping a girl at a public occasion in Chamarajanagar district the day earlier than. Amid fierce Opposition backlash, Somanna, the minister in control of Chamarajanagar, issued an apology however denied slapping the lady and the lady too claimed later within the day that the video had been altered.
This, nevertheless, was not the primary time the 72-year-old state BJP chief, who has been in politics for the reason that Eighties, landed himself in an argument. A few of Somanna’s Cupboard colleagues describe him because the opposition inside the authorities and an individual who expresses displeasure over small issues. A senior BJP chief mentioned, “Somanna feels he’s the senior chief among the many present ministers and he desires a plum portfolio and he expresses it.”
At one Cupboard assembly in 2020, the senior minister acquired into an argument with Legislation and Parliamentary Affairs Minister JC Madhuswamy over city improvement in Bengaluru. There was discuss on the time that Somanna had his eyes on the Bengaluru City Improvement Ministry portfolio, which is with Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai at current. Inside the occasion, R Ashoka is claimed to be his contender for the submit. The variations between Somanna and Madhuswamy continued even when the Cupboard was reshuffled and Bommai grew to become CM in August 2020.
In 2019, Somanna confronted public ire after Kannada rapper Chandan Shetty proposed to actuality TV star Nivedita Gowda through the official Yuva Dasara occasion. On the time, the senior chief was the minister in control of Mysuru district.
Somanna additionally faces a case for allegedly submitting false info within the 2013 election affidavit. Although the Lokayukta court docket filed a “B” report, recommending the closure of the case, this March, a Particular Court docket that offers with prison circumstances towards elected MPs and MLAs within the state rejected the report and requested for a probe. RTI activist Ramakrishna had filed a petition within the court docket, alleging that Somanna’s wealth is disproportionate to his recognized sources of revenue.
Janata Dal to Congress to BJP
Somanna hails from Kanakapura taluka in Ramanagara district and belongs to a household of agriculturists. Earlier than he entered politics, the 72-year-old labored at a Janata Bazar on KG Highway within the coronary heart of Bengaluru. His political journey started in 1980 when he grew to become a corporator at what was the Bengaluru Municipal Company on the time. He later joined the Samajwadi Janata Occasion of HD Devegowda.
Somanna is a Lingayat and is claimed to have sturdy connections with influential Lingayat mutts within the Outdated Mysuru and central Karnataka areas. Within the 1989 Meeting polls, he misplaced to the Congress’s Nazeer Ahmed from the Binnypet constituency in Bengaluru that doesn’t exist anymore. Within the 1994 Meeting polls, he received on a Janata Dal ticket and have become the Bengaluru Improvement Minister in a Devegowda-led Cupboard after actor-turned-politician Anant Nag stop the ministry inside a number of days of taking cost.
However variations with the Janata Dal noticed him contest the 1999 election from Binnypet as an Unbiased. Somanna managed to retain the seat and later joined the Congress. He defected to the BJP in 2008 throughout “Operation Lotus”, a time period used to confer with the occasion’s alleged plan to engineer the defections of seven Opposition MLAs after the Meeting elections because it was three seats wanting a easy majority.
By then an in depth confidant of Lingayat strongman and CM BS Yediyurappa, Somanna misplaced a bypoll in 2009 however was elected to the Higher Home of the state legislature the next 12 months. He remained an MLC until 2018 earlier than being elected to the Meeting from Govindraj Nagar constituency in Bengaluru.
Sources within the BJP mentioned the veteran chief was now additionally demanding a ticket for his son Arun Somanna who’s on the point of enter politics. In consequence, the occasion’s “one household, one ticket” rule has not gone down nicely with him. “To offer area for his son in politics, Somanna is able to take any dangers,” claimed a BJP chief.