K'taka CM race between Shettar & Gowda

BANGALORE/NEW DELHI: With B S Yeddyurappa finally resigning as Karnataka CM on Sunday, a successor may be announced on Wednesday. The choice has narrowed to either Sadanand Gowda or senior state leader Jagdish Shettar.
A full three days after the BJP parliamentary board asked Yeddyurappa to quit in the wake of an indictment by Lokayukta Santosh Hegde, the headstrong leader continues to keep the leadership on tenterhooks.His far from subtle power play — making no bones that he intends to be the power behind the Karnataka government — has proved a major embarrassment for the BJP.
BJP leaders had hoped that Yeddyurappa’s resignation and the process of anointing a successor would have been wrapped by the weekend before Parliament met for the monsoon session. BJP can now expect UPA benches to taunt it over BSY’s gunboat politics in a bid to deflate the saffron party's expected onslaught over issues like jailed telecom minister Raja naming PM and home minister in the 2G scam.
Yeddyurappa had kept the party waiting through the week having told BJP chief Nitin Gadkari that he would quit after “amavasya (moonless night)” was over. There seems to be a vertical divide in the party with the Yeddyurappa camp's choice being contested by his rivals. He is believed to have the backing of close to 70 legislators. BJP state unit president K S Eshwarappa, a contender himself, has his own wish list. His followers too have threatened to boycott the legislative party meeting.
Yeddyurrappa faxed his resignation to Gadkari on Sunday morning and wanted the name of the new chief minister to be announced before he submitted it to governor H S Bhardwaj, it is learnt. But central BJP leaders camping in Bangalore insisted on the CM first putting in his papers with the governor, before announcing the name of the new CM. This upset the leader and he went ahead and named Gowda. That, in turn, annoyed the BJP central leadership and complicated the succession issue.
Yeddyurappa’s move is being seen as aimed at preventing either Ananth Kumar or Eshwarappa or Jagdish Shettar from become the CM. After faxing his resignation to Gadkari, Yeddyurappa hosted a breakfast meeting for his legislators and MPs supporters before attending a felicitation function of the Balija (OBC) community, which was the last function he attended as CM.