Though the Bharatiya Janata Party central leadership has asked the Karnataka unit to convene a legislature party meeting on Wednesday to choose the new Chief Minister, there is a possibility of the party finalising the name on Tuesday night itself.
“In the present scenario, it is practically impossible to take up the entire process of selection of the new Chief Minister at a big gathering like the legislature party meeting. We want to complete the process of selection of the new leader by Tuesday itself in consultation with leaders from both camps and place this before the legislature party meeting on Wednesday for the completion of other formalities,” a senior party functionary told The Hindu.
The party central leadership is learnt to have placed a formula as per which the new Chief Minister would be chosen on the basis of consensus from either the camp of the outgoing Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa or that of his rival group.
According to this formula, the camp whose candidate does not get the chief ministerial post will be provided one or two deputy chief minister posts.
Mr. Yeddyurappa's camp is projecting the party former State president D.V. Sadananda Gowda as its chief ministerial choice, while the rival group is rallying behind the outgoing Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister Jagadish Shettar.
However, the party central leadership is learnt to have firmly rejected Mr. Yeddyurappa's another demand for appointing him as party State unit president in place of K.S. Eshwarappa.
A prominent Minister in the outgoing Cabinet said the party was inching towards the possibility of choosing the next Chief Minister through consensus.
He said the need for evolving a consensus candidate was discussed at a meeting between Mr. Eshwarappa and Mr. Sadananda Gowda. Party central observer Arun Jaitley has dropped hints that the party may resort to voting if efforts to evolve a consensus fail.
Meanwhile, the rival camps in the party are trying to woo legislators from each other's camps to boost their strength, besides trying to keep their flock together by putting them up in luxury hotels.
Mr. Yeddyurappa's camp is learnt to have stationed some of its supporters in a luxury hotel in Bangalore while Mr. Shettar's camp has reportedly placed its legislators in a star hotel in the city.
Meanwhile, BJP national general secretary and state in-charge Dharmendra Pradhan, who is camping in Bangalore for the last five days, continued his consultations with leaders of both the camps and met Mr. Yeddyurappa also.
Mr. Yeddyurappa told reporters that he would soon commence a Statewide tour to strengthen the party organisation.
