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A day after Jagadish Shettar was formally elected as the leader of Karnataka BJP legislature party, Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda submitted his resignation to Governor H.R. Bhardwaj at the Raj Bhavan here on Wednesday afternoon. Ahead of submitting his resignation, Gowda today expressed hope that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) High Command will take into consideration all his demands. "All of you have given trust in me, I have confidence that all the demands made will be favourably considered by the high command and I want all of you should support," he said. The BJP, which is trying hard to balance caste and community aspirations as it prepares for Assembly elections less than 10 months away, may pacify Gowda by making him the state president of the party. Shettar, who has the backing of former Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, will be the third BJP chief minister in the state in four years since the party came to power there in 2008. He will be sworn-in as the chief minister on Thursday. The BJP's core group met in New Delhi on Saturday to approve BJP President Nitin Gadkari's strategy of resolving the Karnataka crisis by replacing Gowda with Shettar. The crisis in the Karnataka BJP intensified last week after nine ministers resigned from the State Cabinet, thereby projecting a show of strength in their campaign for ousting Gowda. The ministers, who quit earlier were Jagadish Shettar (Rural Development), CM Udasi (PWD), Murugesh Nirani (Industries), V Somanna (Housing), Umesh Katti (Agriculture), Basavaraj Bommai (Water Resources), Revu Naik Belamagi (Libraries and Animal Husbandry), M P Renukacharya (Excise) and Raju Gowda (Small Scale Industries) The ministers, however, withdrew their resignations later following a decision of BJP leadership that there would be a change in chief ministership in the state.

Sadananda Gowda resigns as Karnataka CM