Jagdish Shettar will be the new Chief Minister of Karnataka. Announcing this in New Delhi yesterday, BJP President Nitin Gadkari said, Sadanand Gowda has submitted his resignation to the party and he has accepted it. Gadkari said that a meeting of the Party's core committee was held on Saturday to discuss the political situation in the State. He said, senior party leaders Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley will go to Bengalore today to oversee the formal election of Shettar as Chief Minister of Karnataka by the party MLAs. Meanwhile, Sadanand Gowda said that he has accepted the decision of central leadership.
AIR correspondent reports that this marks the third change of leadership in the State in 11 months. The latest change apparently comes because of pressure from B.S. Yeddyurappa, who was insisting for some time now that Gowda should be replaced with his close associate Shettar, a Lingayat leader and Rural Development Minister.
Congress has said that only fresh poll can solve the problem of Karnataka. AICC general secretary B K Hariprasad told reporters in New Delhi that there is a continuous governance paralysis in the BJP ruled state. He termed it as the victory of corruption and said the change of guard is only a cosmetic change. He said 129 talukas are suffering from severe drought and the state government has not taken any action to ameliorate the lot of the common people.
The JDU President Sharad Yadav said that the BJP has taken the right decision as it has to keep lingayat vote base intact.