DVS hands in quit letter to Gadkari

Shettar to be next CM on Wednesday

Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda handed over his resignation letter to party chief Nitin Gadkari onSunday, in a symbolic act, making way for his cabinet colleague Jagdish Shettar to succeed him.

The BJP Legislature Party (BJPLP) will meet in Bangalore on Tuesday morning to formally elect Shettar as its new leader and second chief minister within 11 months, a transition the party leadership hopes will end the current phase of infighting in the party state unit.

Senior party leaders Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh, observers for the election of the new leader, will arrive in Bangalore on Monday evening. They plan to discuss rehabilitation, creation of the post of deputy chief minister and political responsibility for the outgoing chief minister informally at the party forum and also at the BJPLP, party sources said.

A one-line resolution will be passed at the BJPLP declaring Jagadish Shettar its new leader. Sadananda Gowda will then meet Governor H R Bhardwaj at Raj Bhavan and submit his resignation as chief minister. Shettar is expected to accompany Gowda along with a copy of the BJPLP resolution and officially stake claim to form the government.

Shettar is likely to be sworn in as the State’s 21st chief minister on Wednesday. However, a final decision on the date and time will be taken on Monday or at the BJPLP. As many as 25 to 30 ministers will be sworn in along with Shettar, sources said.

Making a formal announcement in New Delhi on the change of guard in the State, BJP national president Nitin Gadkari said: “In view of the current political situation in Karnataka, Gowda has handed over his resignation to me and I accepted it. Jagadish Shettar will be the new chief minister”.
Praising Gowda several times during the short press briefing, Gadkari said “in his tenure, Gowda did good work and the performance of our government was very good.

“There were no complaints against him on grounds of corruption but keeping the party’s interest in mind, as a good party worker, he has resigned,” Gadkari said after a nearly two-hour meeting with Gowda. Senior BJP leaders Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and Karnataka in-charge general secretary Dharmendra Pradhan were present.

Interestingly, when Gadkari made the announcement about Gowda’s resignation, the outgoing chief minister was not by his side. Gowda left Gadkari’s residence by the backdoor after submitting his resignation to the party chief.

With the Assembly elections just 10 months away, the BJP central leadership realised that to put up a “good show”, it will have to fight under the leadership of Yeddyurappa, whom many see as the undisputed leader of the Lingayat community which has always voted for the party, BJP sources said.

Sources said that though the party has offered the State unit president post to Gowda, it is learnt that the latter while agreeing to accept the post, made it clear that he could do so only after a few months and not now.

Sources close to Sadanand Gowda told Deccan Herald that he wanted to take over the party president post only after the current impasse died down completely and didn’t want to encounter any further problems by taking the party reins immediately.

To a question on whether the party would give any post to Gowda, Gadkari said the party was yet to take a decision.