The Bharatiya Janata Party in Karnataka is keeping matters close to its heart amid factions within the party warring over the post of the next chief minister.
While Sadananda Gowda and Jagadish Shettar are front runners for the post after the exit of B S Yeddyurappa who was indicted in Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde's report on illegal mining, sources in the party say that one should not be too surprised if a third candidate acceptable to both the factions, i.e. Yeddyurappa and Ananth Kumar camps, is selected at the end of it.
Former BJP chief Rajnath Singh arrived in Bengaluru on Tuesday night ahead of a crucial meeting to elect the next CM. His colleague Arun Jaitley is expected to join him soon.
Meetings with all the warring factions within the state BJP will commence from 11 pm onwards on Tuesday night. A meeting to officially announce Yeddyurappa's successors has been scheduled tentatively for 11 am on Wednesday, but the venue has not been decided yet.
The leaders from New Delhi have come with a fixed mindset to select a 'consensus candidate.' At no cost do they want any division in the party, although both the sides are pushing for a secret ballot.
The national leaders will make one last ditch attempt to convince the warring factions. However, it is clear that both factions as of now are not agreeable to each others' candidates.
That is why there is every chance of an emergence of a third candidate, who will be acceptable to both the sides.
At the moment there is status quo with BJP leaders indicating that Shettar has the edge over Gowda.
The BJP national leadership had promised on Sunday that the CM would be made known on August 3 at 11 am. However, there are likely delays and the crucial decision could be delayed further.
