Senior BJP leader Jagadish Shettar, blessed by B S Yeddyurappa, is all set to meet his life goal - to be the chief minister of Karnataka.
Shettar had never hid the fact that he is a strong contender for the chief minister post though he could not assert himself or mobilise support to become the unanimous choice of the party.
Eventually, the party central leaders have gone by the say of a majority of the State party leaders that it is better to have a Lingayat as the chief minister when the Assembly elections have to be faced by the party within the next one year. The BJP believes that Lingayats are its strong vote base, particularly in northern Karnataka.
Shettar, who was projected as the party candidate as a replacement to Yeddyurappa last August, lost the battle to D V Sadananda Gowda in the BJP legislature party meeting, by five votes.
Though the party did not announce by how many votes Shettar lost the battle, it was made known to the media that Shettar secured 59 votes as against the 64 votes Gowda managed to get in the BJPLP.
Shettar is one of the senior most BJP leaders in the State. Seniority-wise, he is next only to Yeddyurappa among Lingayat leaders in the BJP. His association with the saffron brigade began as an ABVP member and then as RSS member.
Like Sadananda Gowda, Shettar too is not vocal and has always stood by the party decision.
Of course, he was seen with the Janardhana Reddy camp while questioning the style of functioning of Yeddyurappa as the chief minister. But he had never aired his dissent or grievances against Yeddyurappa.
Yeddyurappa, with a view to consolidate his position in the party, had sidelined Shettar while forming the Cabinet. Shettar, much against his wish, had to occupy the Speaker chair in the Legislative Assembly for nearly 17 months.
Yeddyurappa made his associate Basavaraj Bommai the Dharwad district in-charge minister which was not received well by the followers of Shettar.
In 2009, a section of the BJP senior leaders rebelled against Yeddyurappa and demanded Cabinet berths, and Shettar too was one among them though he never expressed his resentment in public. And, eventually he made it to the Cabinet as RD&PR minister, a portfolio which was earlier held by Shobha Karandlaje.
The only time when Shettar was seen going against the party diktat was when he resigned as minister on June 29 while joining the anti-Sadananda Gowda camp.
This he and a host of ministers did, despite the party high command warning the warring factions not to aggravate the situation till it took a suitable decision on the leadership issue.
