New Delhi: Jagdish Shettar was on Thursday sworn in as the new chief minister of Karnataka in place of D.V. Sadananda Gowda.
Shettar, who was the rural development minister in the Gowda government, was sworn in by Governor H.R. Bhardwaj along with 32 ministers. K.S. Eshwarappa who is the state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) unit president and R. Ashok who was the home minister in the previous government, have been named as deputy chief ministers.
Shetter is the third chief minister in the last four years of the only southern state ruled by the BJP. He became the chief minister on the demand of B.S. Yeddyurappa, who had to quit in July last year after getting embroiled in corruption charges, since Yeddyurappa was threatening to split the party ahead of state assembly elections next year.
Interestingly, it as Yeddyurappa who had handpicked Gowda as his successor last year.
The central leadership of the BJP had to do a tightrope walk in their bid to balance the caste factor — while Yeddyurappa and Shettar belong to the Lingayat community, the party could not have been seen as giving a short shrift to the Gowda community. Consequently, quite a few nominees of Sadananda Gowda were accommodated as ministers in the new government, while Gowda himself may be made the state BJP president in place of Eshwarappa.
