Ousted Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa's candidate and sitting MP D.V. Sadananda Gowda will be the new CM of Karnataka after his election in a closely-fought battle today in the BJP legislature party defeating Jagadish Shettar of the rival camp.
In a victory for the outgoing Chief Minister's camp, 58-year-old Gowda is understood to have got 63 votes in his favour while Shettar, backed by leaders of all hues opposed to Yeddyurappa, secured the backing of 55 MLAs.
After the election by a secret ballot, Gowda, who belongs to the Vokkaliga community, one of the two dominant groups in the state, was 'unanimously' chosen as the leader of the BJP Legislature Party, according to Yeddyurappa camp leaders.
Gowda, former chief of the state party unit and who has his origins in the Sangh Parivar, has been an ardent supporter of Yeddyurappa and had backed him to the hilt in the last two years when the chief minister faced rebellion by ministers and Reddy brothers in the BJP's first government in the South.
The election by secret ballot came after central emissaries - Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh and M. Venkaiah Naidu - failed to evolve a consensus to select Yeddyurappa's successor.
Shettar, who belongs to Yeddyurappa's Lingayat community, is backed by the group led by BJP National General Secretary and Yeddyurappa's arch rival H.N. Ananth Kumar and state party chief K.S. Eshwarappa.
There is speculation that Shettar is tipped to become Deputy Chief Minister.
The election brought out sharp divisions in BJP's state unit with Yeddyurappa aggressively pushing for Gowda's candidature after being asked to step down as Chief Minister following his indictment in the Lokayukta report on illegal mining.
Yeddyurappa resigned on Sunday setting of an intense power struggle in Karnataka.
An affable and non-controversial figure, Gowda is a Lok Sabha member from Udupi-Chikmagalur. He has also served as Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the assembly.
After his election, Gowda addressed a press meet during which he promised to give 'pro-development and people-friendly' government and tried to reach out to the rival camp by saying he would seek to unite and take everybody into confidence.
"I would like to give a good government...pro-development and people-friendly government and infrastructure-oriented government in the coming two years," Gowda said, adding: "I intend to unite the entire party and take everybody into confidence and make the administrative machinery smooth."
Shettar on his part said he would extend cooperation to Gowda, adding, he is confident that the BJP government would give good governance in the remaining two years in power.
He also defended the secret ballot procedure.
"In this political system, if the decision is made through consensus, it's okay. If not, taking up voting is natural. This is a normal process.It shows that democratic system is alive in our party", he said.
BJP sources gave conflicting versions on the voting pattern. Some said 65 MLAs supported Gowda and 51 for Shettar while others maintained it's 64-53 and also 64-54, bringing into the open the sharp division among legislators.
The election of Gowda, who is not a member of either House of the Legislature, has clearly demonstrated the hold Yeddyurappa has over legislators and his influence in BJP.
Ananth Kumar and Eshwarappa had opposed Gowda's nomination on the ground that Yeddyurappa was trying to rule by proxy.
The anti-Yeddyurappa camp proposed the name of Shettar, the Rural Development minister who has been a contender for the Chief Minister's post for a long time.
Leaders of both factions, leaving nothing to chance, ferried their loyalist MLAs to separate star hotels in an attempt to guard them from being poached.
Minutes before the Legislature party meeting, Yeddyurappa and Ananth Kumar supporters brought their group of MLAs to the meeting venue in buses, an action which also brought to fore the groupism in the state unit.