Bangalore, July 31 (IANS) Hours after B.S. Yeddyurappa quit as Karnataka chief minister, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Sunday evening was still struggling for a consensus candidate to lead the party’s new government in the southern state.
With many contenders and groups pushing their favourites and Yeddyurappa insisting on his choice as successor, the BJP legislature party meeting was delayed. It was to be held soon after Yeddyurappa submitted his resignation to Governor H.R. Bhardwaj Sunday afternoon.
Senior leaders Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley continued their efforts to persuade Yeddyurappa and various groups in the state party to reach a consensus on who should lead the government next.
Yeddyurappa and his supporters were insisting that Lok Sabha member from Udupi-Chikmagalur D.V. Sadananda Gowda be the next chief minister.
Just before submitting his resignation, Yeddyurappa announced that he had suggested to party central leaders to pick Gowda as his successor.
However, party sources told IANS that there was opposition to Gowda from several leaders, particularly from state unit chief K.S. Eshwarappa and general secretary and Bangalore South MP H.N. Ananth Kumar.
The two, backed by other anti-Yeddyurappa legislators, were against picking up a Lok Sabha member as the new chief minister and wanted the choice be from the state legislators.
They were pushing for Rural Development Minister Jagadish Shettar, who, like Yeddyurappa, belongs to politically strong Lingayat community.
Singh and Jaitley met Yeddyurappa again after he tendered his resignation to persuade him not to insist on his nominee and facilitate a consensus. However, he has not relented thus far, his supporters said.
The two centralleaders also met Gowda, Shettar, Eshwarappa and several others but there was no sign of a consensus, several hours after Yeddyurappa’s resignation, which too came after three days of defiance of the party directive.
