Karnataka BJP legislators meet to appoint Yediyurappa's successor

The BJP’s legislature party in Karnataka is meeting in Bengaluru to select a successor to BS Yediyurappa, who stepped down from the post of chief minister yesterday.

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Union Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy are attending the meeting in the capacity of observers. The BJP’s state in-charge, Arun Singh, is also present.

The central observers generally convey the BJP leadership’s view to the MLAs before they elect their leader.

Yediyurappa, who helped the BJP acquire a foothold in the south, has not named any successor.

Earlier, BJP leader Basavraj Bommai said that the process of appointing the next Karnataka chief minister may take another three to four days.

“There won’t be much gap. In the next three-four days this process will come to an end,” the Deccan Herald newspaper quoted him as saying.

He said multiple discussions to select the right candidate have taken place in Delhi and the state leaders are yet to learn about the shortlisted name.

“But we don’t know what exactly the discussions are. When top leaders of the party are deliberating on it, we don’t come to know. We don’t have any exact information yet,” he was quoted as saying.

Soon after Yediyurappa announced his resignation on Monday, several names were floating among political circles as his prospective successors. Some of them were of state mines and geology minister Murugesh Nirani, Bommai, the party’s general secretary CT Ravi, joint secretary BL Santhosh, Arvind Bellad, a Lingayat leader, and state minister Jagdish Shettar.

Bommai, who has refused to comment on the speculations, told DH that the decision-making process is guided by the party’s hierarchy and takes place at different levels.

Yediyurappa stepped down on Monday, coinciding with his government completing two years in office. The 78-year-old BJP veteran, who submitted his resignation to Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot at the Raj Bhavan, said he quit “voluntarily” and will continue to remain active in state politics.