Hectic efforts are on in Karnataka to form a government. The house has been placed under suspended animation after H D Kumaraswamy resigned as chief minister as he did not have the requisite numbers on the floor.
The latest from Karnataka is that M V Rajashekharan, a minister at the Centre, is in the race to become the next chief minister. Rajashekharan has emerged as a consensus candidate if all goes well between the Janata Dal (S) and the Congress.
Rajashekharan, however, is playing his cards close to his heart and the buzz is that he is making every attempt to grab the chief minister's post. Rajashekharan, however, says that it is too early to say anything as the high command has to approve the decision.
He also said that he would meet Sonia Gandhi and the next move would depend on the meeting. Though he is the preferred choice of the JD(S), there is a section within the Congress who are not too happy with the move.
The Mallikarjun Kharge camp is not smiling. Kharge had in the past lost out the race to the post of CM to S M Krishna and this time, he would not want to lose out on this opportunity. However at the moment, it is not a matter of choice for the political leaders. The Lingayat community is disgruntled after their leader B S Yediyurappa of the BJP was ditched at the last moment by the JD(S).
The JD(S), too, says that they will lose votes among the influential Lingayat community. According to the JD(S), roping in Rajashekharan, a Lingayat, may appease the community and the party will not been seen as anti-Lingayat.
A faction of the Congress, which is unhappy with Rajashekharan's candidature, has dished out another strategy. It has proposed that JD(S) leader M P Prakash be made the chief minister with the support of the Congress. However, Prakash would have to come out of the JD(S) with a sizeable number of MLAs and truck with the Congress. Prakash, too, belongs to the Lingayat community.
All eyes are now on Sonia Gandhi and H D Deve Gowda. While Sonia is expected to come to a conclusion after three days, Gowda's political brain will start ticking from tomorrow onwards. It is learnt that Gowda does not make any important decision during this period, which is known as pitrupaksha. With this period ending tomorrow, Gowda is expected to spring into action.
Though Gowda and his loyalists may slant towards the Congress to portray that they have a secular image, problems for them may come in the form of Kumaraswamy. Kumaraswamy's close aides told rediff.com that he is very much in favour of going with the BJP as he still feels that he should have kept his word.