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He defeated Jagadish Shettar of the rival camp.
In a victory for the outgoing chief minister's camp, 58-year-old Gowda is understood to have got 63 votes in his favour while Shettar, backed by leaders of all hues opposed to Yeddyurappa, secured the backing of 55 MLAs.
After the election by a secret ballot, Gowda, who belongs to the Vokkaliga community, one of the two dominant groups in the state, was 'unanimously' chosen as the leader of the BJP Legislature Party, according to Yeddyurappa camp leaders.
Gowda, former chief of the state party unit and who has his origins in the Sangh Parivar, has been an ardent supporter of Yeddyurappa and had backed him to the hilt in the last two years when the chief minister faced rebellion by ministers and Reddy brothers in the BJP's first government in the South.
The election by secret ballot came after central emissaries – Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh and M Venkaiah Naidu – failed to evolve a consensus to select Yeddyurappa's
successor.
Shettar, who belongs to Yeddyurappa's Lingayat community, is backed by the group led by BJP National General Secretary and Yeddyurappa's arch rival H N Ananth Kumar and state party chief K S Eshwarappa. There is speculation that Shettar is tipped to become deputy chief minister.
The election brought out sharp divisions in the BJP's state unit with Yeddyurappa aggressively pushing for Gowda's candidature after being asked to step down as chief minister following his indictment in the Lokayukta report on illegal mining. Yeddyurappa resigned on Sunday setting off an intense power struggle in Karnataka.
An affable and non-controversial figure, Gowda is a Lok Sabha member from Udupi-Chikmagalur. He has also served as Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the assembly.
After his election, Gowda addressed a press meet during which he promised to give “pro-development and people-friendly” government and tried to reach out to the rival camp by saying he would seek to unite and take everybody into confidence.
“I would like to give a good government... pro-development and people-friendly government and infrastructure-oriented government in the coming two years,” Gowda said, adding, “I intend to unite the entire party and take everybody into
confidence and make the administrative machinery smooth.”
Shettar, on his part, said he would extend cooperation to Gowda, adding, he is confident that the BJP government would give good governance in the remaining two years in power.
He also defended the secret ballot procedure. “In this political system, if the decision is made through consensus, it's okay. If not, taking up voting is natural. This is a normal process.It shows that democratic system is alive in our party,” he said.
BJP sources gave conflicting versions on the voting pattern. Some said 65 MLAs supported Gowda and 51 for Shettar while others maintained it's 64-53 and also 64-54, bringing into the open the sharp division among legislators.
The election of Gowda, who is not a member of either House of the Legislature, has clearly demonstrated the hold Yeddyurappa has over legislators and his influence in the BJP.
Ananth Kumar and Eshwarappa had opposed Gowda's nomination on grounds that Yeddyurappa was trying to rule by proxy.
The anti-Yeddyurappa camp proposed the name of Shettar, the Rural Development minister who has been a contender for the chief minister's post for a long time.
Leaders of both factions, leaving nothing to chance, ferried their loyalist MLAs to separate star hotels in an attempt to guard them from being poached.
Minutes before the Legislature party meeting, Yeddyurappa and Ananth Kumar supporters brought their group of MLAs to the meeting venue in buses, an action which also brought to fore groupism in the state unit.
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Former Chief Minister of Karnataka Mr B.S. Yeddyurrapa has done it by getting his confident as Chief Minister of Karnataka . As the Party Command was not in mood to get through for the candidate of B.S. Yeddyurrapa but through secret voting Mr Yeddyurrapa has done it . Really it is clear that he enjoys the support of more number of Legislatures .
What else do you want / A perfect Democratic modelof electing the majority leader!!.BJP scores for its inner democracy unlike the Nehru/Gandhi congress party wherin CM's appointment is allowed to the "Family",GODFATHER to some,GODMOTHER to the rest of the "cangress men/women!! What a PM and his men/women we have. Instead of blaming previous BJP Govt,whish was there 7 years back, Manmohan & his clan should blame their own party which ruled this Desh since 47 for all the ills they are facing today.What a shame for a PM that he did NOTHING for 7 years!!!!
Is Sadanand really a Yaddyu man? Has any hand-picked man of the outgoing CM or of the Central leadership of the party ever worked merely as a puppet,except the one picked up by Sonia?Wasn't BANSI lAL picked up by Gulzari Lal Nanda,because,being a briefless vakil,he was perceived as a mouse for central leadership's remote-control?He was NO saint.He had his flaws.He is blamed as the author of Emergency.He is accused of having worked as a despot.Seaming to be working as Indira's man,he did for Haryana what no other CM has done for his state.As implementer of India's population-control policy he did some excesses.He is reported to have neutered even the un-married young sons of his foes-subsequently found to be an accusation made by his vote-hungry opponents.But he worked with commitment for achieving all round growth for benefit of common man.On the other hand,a man of Charan Singh's snow-white integrity could do nothing as PM.Let's hope, he does for Karnatka what Bansi did for Haryana.
Nobody can complain since he was elected in a democratic way
all d best mr. sadananda gowda. work hard to improve the economical status of india. not your personal economic status.
Its good that BJP has given due credit to Yaddu. Its he who got the win in karnatka. Moreover he has to go because of not so big a sin- why Shila and other 2G guys although being complicit in the scam,are being protected. But Yaddu has become a case of vendetta politics.
Not being biased against the new CM, but if Yeddyurappa has recommended then logically the new CM will be like old wine in new bottle. Also, he has been elected by the majority of his legislators. Then logically, do we have a situation where most of their legislators are supporting corruption or maybe even corrupt? Possibly yes. God save this country from these politicians. Don't understand where are we headed as a nation.
Sadananda Gowda may be Yeddy's stooge, but he was at least elected in a free election by the BGP's state legislators. Unlike Congress CMs and other Con"gress state party functionaries, who are "appointed by the so called "High Command"(read Madam Gandhi) because the gutless party members abdicate their responsibilities and "unanimously" request Madam to select their leaders. There is no internal democracy in the Congress Part even at the grass root level. That is why it is a moribund organisation.
Dnt forget Operation Lotus . The very same BJP mastred this Art and was financed by Reddy Brothers.This Secret election was forced on the BJP due to groupism :) Nothing to be proud of it.
BJP central leadership should not have ignored one hard fact that, notwithstanding whatever the draw backs (serious ofcourse) of Yeddyurappa, the BJP in the State became BJP solely because of his hard efforts. This does not mean, he should have his own way. But the BJP leaders should have made it known to Yeddyurappa that it recognizes the strong leadership of Yeddy in Karnataka but at the moment, he has to sidestep owe to the allegations and once this is cleared, he will be more than welcome to take over. This could have made the process much easier. Anant Kumar comes nowhere near to Yeddy when it comes to the growth and strength of the party in the State. Central leadership is perfect in demanding the ouster of Yeddy; but must recognize his strength within the cadres. Here they failed.
What a shame!!! and mockery of democracy. one can become a CM with a support of just 68 MLA's out of 224 MLA's.
Who said this is Democracy? You are living un the gretaest Democrazy of the world. Cheer up... This is the will of God, Allah, whatever you call HER .
Don't worry he will prove his majority in 224 member assembly also soon. It is internal party democracy, which is alien to congress stooges..
Sorry, he is the CM because of support of 118 MLAs. 55 MLA voted for another person in a party internal meeting in the process of finding a leader does not mean they will not support him in Vidhana Souda.
hearty congrats to sadananda gowda, the new chief minister for karnataka. May god bless him to run smooth and contraversy less governament and let him rest assured that entire kannadigas are behind him and expecting noble work by him