Bangalore, August 03: Devaragunda Venkappa Sadananda Gowda, 58, was Wednesday set to be the new chief minister of Karnataka after he was elected leader of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party legislature wing.
Earlier Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley arrived here late Tuesday to help state party legislators pick a successor to outgoing chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa Wednesday.
Talks to secure a consensus and avoid balloting continued well into the night as there were two aspirants – Lok Sabha member D.V. Sadananda Gowda and rural development minister Jagadish Shettar – for the post.
Gowda is being backed by Yeddyurappa and his supporters.
Shettar has the support of state BJP chief K.S. Eshwarappa and party general secretary H.N. Ananth Kumar, who is the Lok Sabha member from Bangalore South.
Rajnath Singh landed first and Jaitley joined him later in the efforts for a consensus that started Friday, a day after the BJP parliament board told Yeddyurappa to quit after Lokayukta N. Santosh Hegde sought his prosecution for graft in illegal mining scam.
–IANS