Yeddyurappa gets his Gowda in via BJP secret ballot

A member of the second largest community in the state,the Vokkaligas,Gowda is untried as an administrator and gets to occupy the top post on account of his association with Yeddyurappa.

Having been forced out following the lokayuktas report on illegal mining,the outgoing chief minister has won this round of his bitter battle with the rival camp in the BJP which had backed Jagadish Shettar,a Lingayat.

By garnering the support of a majority of the BJP MLAs and deploying brinkmanship tactics,including threats of mass resignations,Yeddyurappa forced the party into letting him pick his successor.

Following the legislature party meeting today,Yeddyurappa emerged with elation writ large on his face,flashing his trademark victory sign. However,he desisted from speaking to the media. The rival camp,including all-India party general secretary H N Ananth Kumar,Shettar,C T Ravi and R Ashok,looked despondent.

Soon after the announcement of Gowdas election,state party president K S Eshwarappa and senior leader Rajnath Singh called on the Governor.

Earlier in the day,with efforts by central BJP leaders Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh to hammer out a consensus between the Yeddyurappa and Ananth Kumar factions failing,the two groups of MLAs arrived at the venue of the legislature party meeting in separate entourages.

It was evident from the head-count that the Yeddyurappa group held the upper hand,with 66 MLAs in its camp as against 51 in the Shettar camp,out of a total of 117 BJP MLAs who were eligible to vote and present at the meeting.

BJP MLAs said the central leaders tried to first ensure a unanimous vote and see if people were willing to take a vote by a raise of hands,but were forced to opt for a secret ballot. The results were put in the range of 66:51 by some senior BJP leaders,but no official announcement was made.

Things passed off smoothly after the election. Sadananda Gowdas victory was announced. His candidature to be chief minister was recommended by Yeddyurappa and it was seconded by Shettar and Eshwarappa, BJP chief whip D N Jeevaraj said.

Gowda later told reporters that he would follow up on the policies and programmes of Yeddyurappa. I will provide a good administration and will give a pro-people,pro-development and infrastructure-oriented government, he said.

We are going to make a fresh start on a clean slate, senior BJP leader S Suresh Kumar said.