Lobbying continues for new Karnataka CM

Parleys continued on Monday to select the new chief minister in Karnataka, with both factions of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party trying to muster support for their candidate.

The central party observers, Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh, had deferred a legislature party meeting yesterday, following the intense lobbying by the two camps, led respectively by outgoing chief minister B S Yeddyurappa and H N Ananth Kumar.

The BJP high command has decided the new leader would be selected through consensus, not by voting, at a legislature party meeting here on Wednesday.

Sources indicate D V Sadananda Gowda, the Lok Sabha member from Udupi, is likely to emerge winner, even as the lobbying intensified for Jagadish Shettar, ex-Speaker of the state legislative Assembly and presently minister for rural development. The party has not ruled out an option of having a deputy chief minister.

Dharmendra Pradhan, the party in-charge for Karnataka at the Centre, held talks with state unit president K S Eshwarappa. The latter and Ananth Kumar are supporting Shettar. About 70 MLAs supporting Sadananda Gowda, the choice of Yeddyurappa, have shifted base to the posh Golden Palm resort on the city’s outskirts, to keep their flock together. Another 40 rooms are reserved at Hotel Lalit Ashok for more legislators to shift by this evening. It has been planned to take the MLAs directly to the legislature party meeting on Wednesday.

B P Harish, MLA, said: “We are trying to find an amicable solution to the crisis. We were getting bored in the residence of Yeddyurappa, so shifted our camp to a hotel.”

Talking to reporters, Shettar said, “I am a contender for the post. BJP MLAs have expressed a wish that I should become Chief Minister.”

Meanwhile, several Lingayat mutt heads have spoken for Shettar with Eshwarappa. Also, the Akhila Bharat Veerashaiva Mahasabha has requested Eshwarappa to make Shettar the next CM. If not, the community may not support the party in the next elections, said its general secretary, Vageesh Prasad.

Eshwarappa has ruled himself out of the race, saying he had been made the state head for three years to strengthen the party and he would complete that term.

In the 225-member state legislative assembly, the ruling BJP has 120 members, including the speaker. The Congress has 71 and the JD-S 26. There are six independents, one nominated member and one vacancy.