The Hindu

• Party's central leadership's efforts for truce pay off 

Bangalore, Dec 17: Mangalore's Lok Sabha member D V Sadananda Gowda was on Saturday unanimously elected president of the State unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party for another term.

Saturday was the last day for filing of nomination papers and, according to an understanding finalised by the central BJP leadership, there was no other BJP leader to file the nomination papers resulting in the unanimous election of Gowda.

Deputy chief minister B S Yediyurappa, MP H N Anant Kumar and other BJP leaders greeting Sadananda Gowda in Bangalore on Saturday (Pic V Sreenivasa Murty)

An official announcement in this regard will be made by Returning Officer for the election Raghunath Malkapure at the party's State Council meeting here on Sunday. According to the calendar of events, the election was scheduled to be held on Sunday, party sources said.

Four sets of nominations, each proposed by 20 persons, were filed on behalf of Gowda.

The election of the State unit president had triggered dissidence in party as the supporters of H N Anant Kumar, MP, had been lobbying for removal of Gowda, while a big group of legislators loyal to the deputy chief minister B S Yediyurappa had backed Mr. Gowda.

After brokering peace between the two factions, the party's central leaders created a cordial atmosphere for Gowda's unanimous election. Gowda was appointed interim president nine months ago after the then president of the State unit Jagadish Shettar was inducted as a Minister in the H.D. Kumaraswamy Ministry.

Gowda, who was elected to the Lok Sabha from Mangalore during the 2004 elections, had earlier served as an MLA. He was elected to the Assembly from the Puttur constituency in Dakshina Kannada district in 1994 and 1999 elections.