DV Sadananda Gowda submitted his resignation from the post of Karnataka Chief Minister on Sunday with Lingayath leader Jagadish Shettar set to take over the office soon.
Shettar is the third person to become chief minister in BJP's five-year-rule in Karnataka.
This major development was announced by BJP party president Nitin Gadkari on Sunday after a meeting in New Delhi.
"Sadananda Gowda has done a good job as Chief Minister for 11 months. There is no complaint against his work. Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh will be going to Bangalore tomorrow. There would be a state legislatures meet," said Gadkari.
The BJP's move to remove Gowda from his chief minister post has evidently put an end to the severe internal feud in its Karnataka unit.
Should the central leadership let Gowda assume his post at the chief minister's office, it would have spelled doom for the BJP's rule in the state as the Yeddyurappa camp threatened to collapse the cabinet and thus call for early polls if Gowda's leadership wasn't replaced.
Former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa resorted to strong-arm politics to persuade the party high command to meet his demands. He even went to the extent of risking the BJP's term in Karnataka by claiming that around 51 MLAs from his camp were willing to resign, after nine ministers had personally handed over their resignation to Gowda last month.
After failing to fix the crippled political ties within the party, the BJP top brasses had to bow to Yeddyurappa's demand, with no other options on the table.
The central leadership couldn't afford the same situation to prevail in the Karnataka helm, with the assembly elections in the state right round the corner. As a matter of fact, the opposition parties in the state have already reaped benefits from the BJP's power-struggle, by slamming the party's internal feud for leadership in public.
According to media reports, Gowda is likely to get a post at a national level in the party or may be drawn in as a member of Rajya Sabha.
It may be recalled that Yeddyurappa favoured Gowda as his successor after he was forced to resign following the Lokayukta report which indicted the former CM's possible involvement in the Bellary illegal mining case.
Following Gowda's election as CM, Yeddyurappa was hell bent on pulling him down former as relationship between the two fell over difference of opinion.
