Breaking from the tradition of not picking a politician for the role, the Karnataka government has chosen the 89-year-old former Chief Minister S.M. Krishna, now with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), for inaugurating this year’s Mysuru Dasara. An announcement in this regard was made by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai in Bengaluru on Tuesday.
Responding to queries on why the government deviated from the precedence of not choosing politicians for such a role, the Chief Minister said, “Mr. Krishna is a statesman. He has contributed immensely to the development of this region through various positions held by him.”
It is also being seen in political circles as an effort by the BJP to make use of Mr. Krishna’s image to make inroads in the Old Mysore region where it is still weak.
Mr. Krishna, who hails from Somanahalli of Maddur, is a Fulbright scholar who made it big in the State and national political scape. He quit the Congress, with which he was associated for nearly five decades, in 2017 and joined the BJP.
