Karnataka CM to resign soon, as Yeddyurappa calls shots

Panchayati Raj Minister Jagdish Shettar set to accede to the top post in the state

The writ of former Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa continues to be the strongest in the state as he has managed to pressure senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to replace present chief minister Sadanand Gowda and appoint Panchayati Raj Minister Jagdish Shettar instead to the top post in the state.

Senior BJP leaders have indicated Gowda would soon resign after meeting BJP President Nitin Gadkari. The BJP leaders are of the opinion that a legislative party meeting would be called in Bangalore in the next few days and Shettar's name would be announced for the post of the chief minister after talking to all factions of the Karnataka BJP unit.

“A final decision will be announced after Karnata chief minister meets BJP President Nitin Gadkari on Sunday," said senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley.

Yeddyurappa has managed to make the BJP leaders change the chief minister because he enjoys the support of more than 65 Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) and had threatened not to support the present chief minister in the legislative assembly. The former Karnataka chief minister belongs to the lingayat community and enjoys the support of at least 18 per cent vote share in the state.

Though BJP senior leaders LK Advani, Sushma Swaraj, leader of opposition in Lok Sabha and Anantha Kumar were not in favour of replacing Gowda because he belongs to Vokkaliga community and the BJP does not want to upset the people of the community by changing the chief minister.

Advani also doesn't want to support Shettar, because he is a known Yeddyurappa loyalist and the senior-most BJP leader believes that since the latter is facing corruption charges and is being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the BJP should not send a message that it is coming under pressure from Yeddyurappa to change the chief minister.

In a desperate attempt not to annoy the Vokkaliga community, the BJP leaders were mulling on the option of appointing a deputy chief minister who would belong to the community, since senior leaders suspect the unceremonious replacement of Gowda would annoy the dominant community.

Gowda, who used to be a Yeddyurappa loyalist and was handpicked by him to become the chief minister in August last year, began having differences after Yedddyurappa started suspecting that he was conspiring against him by joining hands with the Opposition parties. Yeddyurappa had repeatedly complained with central BJP leaders to replace Gowda with Shettar.