JOIN USThe BJP Parliamentary Board, the highest decision making body of the party, is likely to meet either on Saturday or Sunday to discuss leadership change in Karnataka.
The party has almost made up its mind to replace D V Sadananda Gowda with Rural Development Minister Jagadish Shettar as chief minister. Shettar is a Lingayat leader whose candidature has been strongly pushed by the B S Yeddyurappa camp.
The parliamentary board has to approve the leadership change.
Almost a year ago, the Parliamentary Board had made Sadananda Gowda chief minister in place of Yeddyurappa, who had to quit following the submission of a Lokayukta report on illegal mining in the State.
Yeddyurappa, who has been embroiled in several corruption charges, had then successfully managed to get more votes for Sadananda Gowda than Shettar in the Legislative Party. But now Yeddyurappa has been insisting on Gowda’s removal and installation of a leader of his choice before the state goes to the polls in the next few months.
BJP national president Nitin Gadkari along with Sushma Swaraj, Leader of the Opposition
in the Lok Sabha, met party supremo L K Advani on Friday night to convince him about the need for the leadership change in the State.
Advani is understood to be against the appointment of Yeddyurappa or his nominee as the chief minister. Efforts are still on to win over Advani. Gadkari is the chairman of the 12-member board and Ananth Kumar its secretary.
As the party is under pressure from the Yeddyurappa camp to replace Gowda at the earliest, the board will meet and discuss the issue. However, the decision of the panel will be announced at the state legislative party meeting to be held in Bangalore on Monday or Tuesday.
After the board ratifies the decision, Gadkari and leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, party leader in charge of Karnataka affairs Dharmendra Pradhan and Ananth Kumar will meet leaders of different factions in Bangalore. After meeting all factional leaders in Bangalore, the central leadership will decide whether to create the post of deputy chief minister.