Jagadish Shettar to be formally elected as Karnataka Chief Minister today

Jagadish Shettar will be formally elected today as Karnataka's third Chief Minister in four years. The BJP Legislative Party in Karnataka will meet later today to endorse him as the CM.

The BJP's top leaders Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh are in Bangalore to oversee the transition from outgoing CM Sadananda Gowda to Mr Shettar.

But for the BJP, an affable and dignified Mr Gowda keeping his smile and giving up the Chief Minister's seat without histrionics has meant that its big Karnataka crisis has blown over for the moment.

However the influential Vokkaliga community, from which Mr Gowda hails, staged protests across the state over the change of guard. They will observe today - Mr Shettar's swearing in, as a 'black day'.

And though Mr Gowda's quiet surrender to internal party politics has ensured that the Vokkaliga uprising does not get out of hand, the BJP has to find an honourable exit for him by giving him a key post. The party is also said to be chalking out key roles for Vokkaliga leader R Ashok, who is home minister and Kuruba leader KS Eshwarappa, the party's state president.

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BS Yeddyurappa has emphatically proved again that only he calls the shots in the state. Mr Shettar, a fellow Lingayat, is his choice as the new Karnataka Chief Minister. He is likely to be sworn in on Wednesday, July 11.

Mr Gowda, who too was picked to be CM by Mr Yeddyurappa last year, but who fell foul of his mentor, handed his resignation to BJP president Nitin Gadkari on Sunday. For many months now, Mr Yeddyurappa had been flexing some serious political muscle in his bid to oust Mr Gowda and the party leadership finally gave in keeping in view the Assembly elections next year. The party will then need Mr Yeddyurappa, who as the tallest leader of the powerful Lingayat community, had won Karnataka for the BJP in 2008; its first state in southern India.

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When Mr Yeddyurappa was forced to resign as Karnataka chief minister last year after being indicted in illegal mining cases by the state ombudsman or Lokayukta, Mr Shettar had thrown his hat in the ring as a natural replacement. At that time, however, Mr Yeddyurappa was sure it would be a matter of months before he cleared his name and was back as CM. He is believed to have been reluctant to hand over power to another Lingayat leader and picked Mr Gowda instead.

But earlier this year, when a CBI investigation was ordered against Mr Yeddyurappa in corruption cases and an early return to power seemed impossible, Mr Yeddyurappa changed tack and played the community card. With more than half of the BJP's legislators reportedly backing him, he demanded that a Lingayat leader, specifically Mr Shettar, be made CM. Matters came to a head a few days ago when nine ministers, including Mr Shettar, resigned demanding that Mr Gowda be removed. They withdrew their resignations only when the party assured them that their demand would be addressed soon.  

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Mr Gowda's dismissal has caused disquiet in the National Democratic Alliance that the BJP leads. "NDA is in loss, and Sadananda Gowda has been martyred, but their party and our party are different, and it's their own matter," said Sharad Yadav, who heads the Janata Dal(United), a key BJP ally.

The Congress has expectedly sought to make political capital out of the BJP's Karnataka woes. "The BJP high command has no control over Karnataka. The BJP in Karnataka is acting like an independent party. They are giving clear messages to the state party," said Congress leader Veerappa Moily.