D V Sadananda Gowda is the new Chief Minister of Karnataka

D V Sadananda Gowda is the new Chief Minister of Karnataka

www.mangaloretoday.com

Mangalore, August 3, 2011:  Sadananda Gowda will be Karnataka’s new Chief Minister. The BJP’s 121 MLAs voted for Mr Gowda through secret ballot at a legislature party meeting held at Bangalore’s Capitol Hotel on Wednesday afternoon. Senior BJP leaders Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh supervised the voting, once it was clear that no consensus on one name was possible. 

 

The two forerunners for the post, Sadananda Gowda and Jagadish Shettar, belong to rival camps. Mr Gowda is Mr Yeddyurappa’s man and Jagdish Shettar belongs to the Ananth Kumar camp. Of the 118 MLAs who finally voted, sources say about 68 voted for Mr Gowda.

Earlier, MLAs were seen arriving in buses, cheering loudly for Mr Yeddyurappa - he claimed he has the support of over 70.  Another lot showed up brandishing the Victory sign - they were part of a camp of about 50 MLAs led by Ananth Kumar. The meeting was delayed as each leader sought to convince the central leaders that his man be the next CM. So divided is the BJP at the moment that there were differences even in the way the two camps wanted the voting done - the Yeddyurappa camp wanted open voting while the Ananth kumar camp favoured the secret ballot. 
 
Mr Yeddyurappa had quit as Karnataka Chief Minister reluctantly on Sunday, days after the Santosh Hegde report on illegal mining severely indicted him and his family. His resignation was accompanied by the usual political drama - clinging to the chair till he could, then picking a propitious time to resign and finally, a massive show of strength as he walked to the Raj Bhawan flanked by his 70 MLAs. In all that, Mr Yeddyurappa also made clear that while he was acceding to party wishes that he quit, only a person of his choice should be his successor.

 

Mrs. and Mr. Sadanand Gowda

But three days later, as the BJP headed into the delayed meeting today to pick the new CM, there was clearly a battle ahead. The two rival BJP groups had been huddled in two different luxury hotels of Bangalore and each insisted that their man would be the next CM. Mr Yeddyurappa’s group was quite sanguine that Sadananda Gowda would be picked.

Not so fast, the Ananth Kumar camp had said. The BJP General Secretary has had a troubled relationship with Yeddyurappa, who is said to have shot down the proposal that Ananth Kumar take over as Chief Minister. Once that happened, his camp wanted to ensure that one of their team made it to the chair. "Central leaders have taken the opinion of both sides. First we thought of myself, Eshwarappa and Jagadish Shettar. After that we sat and talked - along with Ananth Kumar - and we believe it will be Jagadish Shettar, said R Ashok, the Karnataka Home Minister.

 
But, Mr Yeddyurappa prevailed.
 
Caste equations, which matter much, too were at the heart of this fight for the top position. Mr Yeddyurappa belongs to the powerful and dominant Lingayat community. The Ananth Kumar camp wanted Jagadish Shettar, also a Lingayat, to be CM to neutralise Mr Yeddyurappa’s indubitable influence. On the other side, the Yeddyurappa camp was pushing for Sadananda Gowda, who is a Vokkaliga, another dominant community. Gowda in the saddle would also mean that Mr Yeddyurappa would remain the Lingayat strongman.
 

Who is Sadananda Gowda?

He was believed to be the lucky mascot of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state. After leading the state unit of the party to power for the first time south of the Vindhyas, DV Sadananda Gowda, inexplicably, was suddenly marginalised.

A two-time MLA and MP — currently, he represents Udupi-Chikmagalur constituency in the Lok Sabha— Sadananda Gowda is now elected as chief minister of Karnataka.

Ironically, he is neither a sitting MLA nor an office-bearer of the state unit of the party. When he was the state BJP president, Gowda was, in fact, denied an opportunity of helming the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF), after the party promised him the post. A miffed Gowda later quit as a director of KMF.

It was said that the party had promised to rehabilitate Gowda, then director of KMF, as its managing director after he completed his term as state party chief in January 2010.

However, the stranglehold exercised by the Reddy brothers over the party resulted in one of them, Somashekara Reddy, walking away with the post of KMF MD.
Earlier, Gowda was president of the state BJP for two terms during 2006-10. The party rode to power in Karnataka when he was at the helm of its affairs. Born in 1953 at Mandekoli in Sullia taluk in the Tulu-speaking Kodava Gowda family of Venkappa and Kamala, Gowda holds a bachelors degree in science and a law degree. He married his collegemate, Dotiya. The couple had two sons, one of whom died in a motorcycle accident.

After a failed attempt in 1989, he was elected MLA from Puttur constituency in 1994 and 1999. During his second term, he was the deputy leader of the opposition in the assembly. He later moved to the national politics and was elected from Mangalore to the Lok Sabha in 2004.

In 2009, the party shifted him to Udupi-Chikmagalur constituency to accommodate RSS hardliner Naleen Kumar Kateel in Mangalore. Gowda wrested the constituency from the Congress. The BJP has deputed him to Goa and Kerala and he has lived up to the party’s expectations on these missions.

People who know Gowda closely say that he has never aspired for political power, and has remained content with organising the party and monitoring the party-RSS relations, ensuring harmony there.