The BJP legislature party, which will meet here at 5 pm on Friday at a private hotel, is all set to pick chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa’s successor.
Highly-placed party sources said the central leadership might favour Jagadish Shettar, another Lingayat leader, to succeed Mr Yeddyurappa. BJP general secretary Ananth Kumar’s name is also doing the rounds, as are the names of state unit president K.S. Eshwarappa, party MP D.V. Sadananda Gowda and state law and parliamentary affairs minister Suresh Kumar.
The BJP national office-bearer in charge of Karnataka, Dharmendra Pradhan, arrived in Bengaluru Thursday afternoon, and two senior leaders, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley and former party chief Rajnath Singh, will also be in Bengaluru by Friday afternoon. All party MLAs now travelling overseas have been told to cut short their visit and return. “They will reach the city by Friday noon,” sources said.
On reaching Bengaluru, Mr Singh and Mr Jaitley will meet Mr Yeddyurappa in a bid to ensure that there is a smooth transition, the sources explained.
Earlier on Thursday, after the BJP parliamentary board unanimously decided to remove Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, chief party spokesperson Ravishankar Prasad said in New Delhi: “The BJP has unanimously decided that there will be a change of guard in Karnataka. The board has advised Yeddyurappa to step down immediately.” He also said that as far as a new chief minister is concerned, the legislature party will take a decision.
The BJP central leadership rushed senior leader Dharmendra Pradhan to Bengaluru to effect the change in leadership. Mr Yeddyurappa, who had a telephonic chat with party chief Nitin Gadkari after reaching Bengaluru, told him he would abide by the party’s decision earlier in the day and step down. Sources said the central observers would also discuss the fate of some of the state Cabinet ministers indicted by the state Lokayukta in his report. The BJP, it was learnt, wanted to prove to the Opposition that it takes the corruption issue seriously.
The party also went all out in attacking the Congress-led UPA government on various scams. “The Congress should first look within before levelling charges as it is responsible for the 2G scandal, the biggest scam in independent India, which cost the exchequer a loss of `1.76 lakh crores,” said Mr Ravishankar Prasad. He warned the Congress not to abuse the office of governor H.R. Bhardwaj, and try to come to power in the state through the back door.
Mr Yeddyurappa stands accused by Karnataka’s Lokayuktya Justice Santosh Hegde of receiving `30 crores in kickbacks and turning a blind eye to the illicit mining of iron ore, which cost the exchequer `160.8 billion ($3.6 billion) between 2006 and 2010. In his mining report, Justice Hegde recommended the prosecution of Mr Yeddyurappa under the Prevention of Corruption Act for his “direct involvement” in the scam.