New Delhi:
When BS Yeddyurappa was forced by his party to quit as Karnataka's Chief Minister, he picked V Sadananda Gowda to replace him. The understanding was that Mr Gowda would serve as a seat-warmer, who would make way for his mentor as soon as Mr Yeddyurappa extricated himself from a series of corruption cases. Mr Yeddyurappa now wants his office back, but Mr Gowda has had a change of heart.
So both the current chief minister and the chief minister-in-waiting are now in Delhi to meet with their party leaders and convince them about their right to the top job in Karnataka, where the BJP's first term in power has been mangled by bitter political in-fighting.
Mr Gowda has met this morning with his party's most senior leaders - LK Advani, Rajnath Singh, Murli Manohar Joshi and finally, BJP president Nitin Gadkari. "We are also going to place in detail the political scenario that is happening in Karnataka and we seek immediate interference by the Centre to see that everything is set right," said Mr Gowda, known for his infectious smile.
Mr Yeddyurappa, meanwhile, is holding a series of meetings with his loyalists.
Last night, Mr Gowda said in Bangalore before taking a chartered plane to Delhi that he had been promised by Mr Gadkari that there would be no change in leadership in Karnataka. But the BJP's quandary is a large one. If it sides with Mr Yeddyurappa, it will lose all moral ground in its anti-corruption campaign. In Delhi, the party has been attacking the Congress for a series of scams. Mr Advani conducted a rath-yatra last year to highlight the need for clean governance, and to suggest that the BJP can provide that. Mr Yeddyurappa was cleared of some corruption charges by a court last week; but he has other cases pending against him for handing public land to his family at huge discounts. Last year, he spent nearly a month in jail.
This week, Mr Yeddyurappa has proved his might aggressively to his party. A group of nearly 70 of the BJPs MLAs showed their allegiance to him by moving into a five-star resort on the outskirts of Bangalore, which was once owned by actor Sanjay Khan and hosted the wedding of his daughter to actor Hrithik Roshan. On Tuesday, Mr Yeddyurappa's supporters refused to report to work at the Karnataka Assembly for the budget session. After negotiations on Tuesday night with the party's central leadership, Mr Yeddyurappa and his large team showed up in the Assembly on Wednesday. That meant that the current chief minister could present his budget without the embarrassing absence of most of his MLAs.
However, that didn't end the BJP's troubles in the state where it is running its first government. In a critical by-election yesterday, the BJP lost the Lok Sabha seat from Udipi-Chikmagalur - the former constituency of Mr Gowda. The defeat is a victory in disguise for Mr Yeddyurappa who chose not to campaign there, allegedly because his party had reservations about the corruption cases against him, and whether that would affect voters.
The dispute between the current and former Chief Minister has caste overtones as well. Mr Yeddyurappa, a Lingayat, chose a Vokkaliga to replace him. Both are dominant communities in the state - and the BJP is in a bind now in case they have alienated the Lingayat vote bank. Would one time Yeddyurappa foe turned ally, Jagadish Shettar, another Lingayat, be a potential Chief Ministerial choice that would satisfy Mr Yeddyurappa if he is given the chair himself? And how would the Vokkaliga community react to a Chief Minister from their community being dumped on the demands of the volatile Mr Yeddyurappa? Elections to the state Assembly are due in 2013.