With only hours to go before the crucial BJP legislature party meet to pick a new chief minister, Central leader Rajnath Singh and senior BJP leaders met at a private hotel here to hammer out a consensus candidate.
And the race to the CM’s gaddi is now anybody’s game.
However, party insiders indicated that the outgoing chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa’s candidate and Udupi-Chikmagalur MP D.V.Sadananda Gowda may have the edge over his rival, Bengaluru MP Ananth Kumar’s pick, the rural development minister Jagadish Shettar.
Leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley who landed in Bengaluru late on Tuesday reportedly joined the meeting attended by several confidantes of the caretaker chief minister including ministers Murugesh Nirani, R.Ashok, as well as state party chief K.S. Eshwarappa, Gowda and Shettar.
BSY was expected to join the meeting.
Sources indicated that Gowda edged ahead after 14 BJP MPs lobbied hard for him with high command in Delhi. In a bid to prevent the party from splitting down the middle however, an RSS and a BJP emissary have sounded out law minister Suresh Kumar on whether he will be amenable to becoming their consensus candidate.
RSS wants no ballot, BSY wants open ballot
Top RSS sources said that they were determined to avoid a secret ballot at any costs and the showdown that it could entail during the legislature party meeting on Wednesday, preferring to arrive at a third candidate who was acceptable to all.
Most BJP legislators want a secret ballot so that they will not be targeted. BSY however wants an open ballot.
Yeddy to support Shettar?
Two senior leaders met Suresh Kumar separately to explore the possibility of a third candidate, sources explained.
This came even as the beleaguered caretaker chief minister BSY travelled to Tumkur to appeal to the Siddaganga Math seer Shivakumar Swami to intercede on his behalf and save him and his sons and son-in-law from prosecution.
In return, he is reported to have agreed to back his Lingayat rival Jagadish Shettar as chief minister. Giving credence to these reports was the arrival of Shettar at the Tumkur math, after he was summoned by the seer.
Neither BSY nor Shettar’s camp confirmed the reports. However the RSS-BJP were taking no chances. Sources said they would press for the third option if the party was faced with the threat of a split.
'Gujarat experiment was successful'
The party sources justified the third choice experiment by pointing to its success in Gujarat. Narendra Modi was made the chief minister over the heads of warring stalwarts Shankasingh Vaghela and Keshubhai Patel.
The experiment was successful in Gujarat, sources said. Sources in the party said that Suresh Kumar was their preferred choice for chief minister while former state home minister Dr V.S. Acharya came a close second. Both men enjoy a “clean’ reputation. The emissaries also met Dr Acharya, sources said.
The legislature party meeting will be held at a private hotel at 11 am.
Busy day for leaders
As Yeddyurappa worked through the day to safeguard his followers from being poached by arch-rival Ananth Kumar, issuing a diktat to his legislators not to accept any calls from the rival camp, Kumar was using the same Lingayat card employed by Yeddyurappa to keep himself in power.
His emissaries are said to have appealed to BSY’s Lingayat legislators not to block the appointment of Jagadish Shettar, another Lingayat, citing the support for the majority community by two powerful seers on Tuesday.
The public relations department of the Kumar camp meanwhile stepped up pace, sending out pictures of Shettar looking distinctly chief ministerial.
The BJP-RSS attempt to pick a leader who can retain the party vote base which includes powerful Lingayat votes has so far stymied Kumar’s own efforts at becoming chief minister as he belongs to the Brahmin community.
After arriving in the city late in the night, national leaders Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh began closed door talks with top RSS leaders. Sources said that if the party was compelled to consider the nuances of electoral politics of the state, a Lingayat leader from Hubli, Shettar, who on Tuesday received the support of powerful Lingayat maths across the state, may have bright chances to succeed Yeddyurappa.
But Kumar, who is said to have worked the levers to consolidate support in the run up to Wednesday’s vote has pushed for a secret ballot. Latest reports indicate that both Singh and Jaitley were persuaded that Kumar’s proposal to select a leader through secret ballot would spell the death knell for the party as it would formalise the two camps, one led by Yeddyurappa and the other one by Ananth Kumar and eventually lead to a split, sources said.
After 6 months, I will be CM again: BSY
Meanwhile, after hosting a tea for senior IAS and IPS officers, Yeddyurappa told reporters that he had confidence he would come out clean in six months. “After six months, I will become chief minister again,” he said.
This statement is being interpreted in the party circle that Yeddyurappa may back either Shettar or a third candidate so that he could come back to power once he won the corruption charges, sources added.