Who Will Replace Yediyurappa As New Karnataka CM? Decision Likely At BJP Legislature Party Meet Today

Karnataka BJP MLAs' Meeting: The BJP leadership has appointed Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and G Kishan Reddy as observers. Both the leaders will attend the BJP Legislature Party meeting.

(Image: Twitter/@BSYBJP)

Karnataka BJP MLAs' Meeting: After senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader BS Yediyurappa resigned as Karnataka Chief Minister, the BJP central leadership asked the state unit of the party to convene a legislature party meeting on Tuesday evening to begin the process of selection of the new Chief Minister.

Basavaraj S Bommai, who was the Home Minister in the Yediyurappa cabinet, said, "There is a meeting of the party legislature at 7 pm in a private hotel." Currently, the Karnataka Cabinet has been dissolved. 

Bommai said that after the party legislature meeting, there will be a meeting of the BJP Parliamentary Board, wherein the final decision regarding the new Chief Minister will be taken.

A top party functionary said that the observers of the BJP central leadership - Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, G Krishna Reddy and BJP general secretary and Karnataka in-charge Arun Singh are expected to attend the legislature party meeting. According to sources, both the leaders will reach Bengaluru this evening to attend the legislature party meeting.

Normally, central observers apprise the legislators of the central leadership's choice of the new leader and try to build a consensus on that. The party's national organization general secretary BL Santhosh is already camping in Bengaluru and is meeting with party leaders to seek their opinion.

Yediyurappa comes from the influential Lingayat community of Karnataka. Speculations are rife about the BJP handing over the chief minister's post to an influential leader of the Lingayat community.

The names being discussed as possible successors to Yediyurappa include Union minister Pralhad Joshi, BJP national general secretaries CT Ravi, BL Santosh, and state assembly speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri.

The names of State Home Minister Basavaraj S Bommai, Revenue Minister R Ashok, and Deputy Chief Minister CN Ashwath Narayan are also in the news. Yediyurappa completed his two-year term as Chief Minister on Monday. He had announced his resignation in a program organized on the occasion. He then met Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot at the Raj Bhavan and submitted his resignation to him.