Another round of infighting within the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Karnataka has commenced. Nine ministers loyal to former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa quit the state cabinet on Friday evening, which has mounted pressure on CM Sadananda Gowda.
In fact, a three-way fight is currently on within the Karnataka BJP. There is the B S Yeddyurappa camp with the maximum number of MLAs; there is a camp loyal to (Karnataka BJP united president) K S Eshwarappa and (senior BJP leader) Ananth Kumar. But the latest entrant is the Sadananda Gowda camp.
And all the three camps are demanding the same thing: to make (or retain, in the case of Gowda camp) their leader as the chief minister.
Yeddyurappa's camp, which claims the support of nearly 50 MLAs, has been seeking a leadership change since the past seven months now. But when they realised that thanks to the innumerable cases against Yeddyurappa he could not be reinstated, they pitched for Jagadish Shettar.
The moment the hue and cry for a change in leadership became louder, Eshwarappa stated, "I am in the race too." The Eshwarappa camp also stated in closed circles that they should also make a pitch for Ananth Kumar who has forever been in the race for the coveted post.
Just when we thought that the infighting was restricted between two camps, a third sprung up. A team headed by Balachandra Jharkiholli backed Sadananda Gowda and said he and ten others would quit if the CM is changed.
The equations for Gowda are different today. He does not have the same favour he had once upon a time with the party leadership. Although the party leadership does have faith in Gowda, they have realised that he is not their man for the elections. Moreover, Yeddyurappa and his crew will not let him function.
The more important factor is that with one year remaining for the elections, the BJP has started thinking of its primary vote bank -- the Lingayats. The religious heads are already complaining that they were the ones who brought the BJP to power in the first place and now their leader (Yeddyurappa) is not the CM. Taking all this into consideration, the party felt that Shettar is a better choice as he is in the Yeddyurappa camp and also a Lingayat.
Sources in the BJP say that at any cost the party would not even consider making Eshwarappa or Ananth Kumar for the CM's post.
So it is left between Gowda and Shettar. If the BJP leadership from Delhi does manage to take a decision regarding Shettar, there is not really much that the anti-Yeddyurappa faction could do.
