Gowda’s ouster comes with demands; delays leadership in Karnataka

The story of southern state of Karnataka, the political battle field, has taken new twist today. The state was all set to get its new chief minister today with the ouster of Chief Minister DV Sadananda Gowda, BJP’s Jagadish Shettar was to be formally crowned as new chief minister of the state; the third CM in last four years of the largest opposition party.

“The BJP legislature party meeting has been convened here at 11 am Tuesday to unanimously elect Shettar as the new leader through a resolution. The meeting will be presided by central observers Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley,” said a party spokesman. However, the ousting chief minister and the legislature party leader has reportedly clarified that he had not convened such a meeting.  'As per norms only legislature party leader can convene a legislature party meeting on the directions of the state president. But neither me nor the state president have scheduled such a meeting,' he said.

Besides this Gowda, who is backed by 55 MLAs, has demanded the throne of state party president and the incumbent state unit chief KS Eshwarappa to be accommodated as deputy chief minister. Gowda has even threatened to boycott the legislator meetings if the party high command fails to fulfill his demands.