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KARNATAKA |
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Gowda puts spanner in Shettar’s path to becoming CM
The outgoing CM has laid down conditions that BJP bosses will need to fulfill before he resigns
Imran Khan
Bangalore
Putting a spanner to Jagadish Shettar’s appointment as the new chief minister of Karnataka, Sadananda Gowda has refused to resign from the chief minister’s post until three demands of his were met by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) high command.
Backed by religious leaders of his Vokkaliga caste, Gowda has demanded that he should be appointed state president of BJP instead of KS Eshwarappa, who in turn, should be given deputy chief minister’s post and equal ministerial berths to members of his faction. Gowda has also demanded that announcement of the names of ministers and constitution of the cabinet should be done at one go.
Claiming the support of 56 MLAs, Gowda along with his supporters, boycotted the legislature party meet at the city’s Capitol Hill on Tuesday. They have also threatened to resign if their demands were not met. A signed petition has been submitted to central party observers Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley.
The outgoing Karnataka CM, whose tenure as a CM lasted 11 months (probably the shortest in the state’s history), received massive backing from Vokkaliga religious leaders after the announcement of his resignation. Vokkaliga organisations publicly threatened the BJP high command of dire consequences if his demands are not met and held massive protests in Gowda’s home town and several places in Karnataka on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, another Vokkaliga leader state home minister R Ashok has been aggressively campaigning for the post of deputy CM for himself.
Imran Khan is a Senior Correspondent with Tehelka.
imran@tehelka.com
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