After an awkward high drama that lasted for about five hours, legislators of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday elected state rural development and panchayat raj minister, Jagadish Shettar, as the leader of the legislature party. With this, decks have been cleared for the 56-year-old Lingayat leader to replace D V Sadananda Gowda as the chief minister of the state.
Shettar will take oath of office as 21st chief minister of Karnataka on Thursday, instead of Wednesday as decided earlier. The day’s postponement was decided after senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh, the party’s observer at the meeting, suggested Gowda, 59, resign tomorrow afternoon.
“Shettar will take oath on Thursday,” a spokesman for the party told reporters immediately after the meeting, delayed by five hours as Gowda’s supporters wanted the party to announce his appointment as state party chief and also create two posts of deputy chief ministers.
The meeting was scheduled to begin at 11 am, but was convened only around 4 pm as party senior Arun Jaitley as well as Singh struggled to broker peace between the warring factions led by Gowda, a Vokkaliga, and the party’s state unit president K S Eshwarappa on one side and former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa on the other.
A decision on the number of deputy chief ministers and who will hold which posts, as also a position for Gowda, will be announced after more meetings in Delhi, party sources said.
Prior to the legislature party meeting, Jaitley had to rush back to Delhi as his wife suffered a heart attack.
Ministers and MLAs loyal to Gowda demanded he be made party president and Eshwarappa the deputy chief minister. They held a meeting at Gowda’s residence, to show their strength. They have also demanded an equal number of ministerial berths to their camp, and announcing the names of ministers and the constitution of the Shettar cabinet at one go, party sources said.
Transport and Home Minister R Ashok tried to muster support for himself for the post of deputy CM. Sources said the party high command was not in favour of creating the post of deputy chief minister as it did not want to set a precedence.
