Sadananda Gowda leaves for Delhi

"My party high command has called me to Delhi. I am leaving today", Gowda, for whose scalp the rebels led by former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa have been pressing for, told reporters here.

BJP sources said the party's Parliamentary Board was expected to deliberate on the Karnataka crisis this evening to hammer out a solution.

However, Gowda, who fell out from Yeddyurappa camp has pleaded with the party that it should not take any decision in "haste" and sought to assert himself that he has strived to give a corruption-free administration in the last 11 months, after he was appointed as Chief Minister.

Gowda took over from Yeddyurappa in August last year after BJP high command axed him in the wake of allegations of corruption against him.

Yeddyurappa, who propelled Gowda as his successor then, has been demanding for his ouster now and wants to install Rural Development Minister Jagadish Shettar, also a Lingayat, as Chief Minister.

In the event of BJP opting for change of guard, the political history witnessed in Karnataka from 1989 to 1994 of having three Chief Ministers in a span of five years would repeat.

Congress, which returned to power with a massive mandate in the state, replaced Veerendra Patil with S Bangarappa.

Veerappa Moily replaced Bangarappa following heightened dissidence against him.

In the assembly polls held in 1994, Janata Dal trounced Congress.