Amid speculation about his replacement to quell dissidence in the ruling BJP in Karnataka, the Chief Minister, Mr D.V. Sadananda Gowda, today left here for New Delhi responding to summons from the party high command.

“My party high command has called me to Delhi. I am leaving today,” Mr Gowda told reporters here.

BJP sources said the party’s Parliamentary Board was expected to deliberate on the Karnataka crisis this evening to hammer out a solution.

However, Mr Gowda, who fell out with the Yeddyurappa camp, has pleaded with the party that it should not take any decision in “haste” and sought to assert that he has strived to give a corruption-free administration in the last 11 months, after he was appointed as Chief Minister.

Mr Gowda took over from Yeddyurappa in August last year after BJP high command axed him in the wake of allegations of corruption against him.

Mr Yeddyurappa, who propelled Mr Gowda as his successor then, has been demanding for his ouster now and wants to appoint Rural Development Minister Mr Jagadish Shettar, also a Lingayat, as Chief Minister.

In the event of BJP opting for change of guard, the political history witnessed in Karnataka from 1989 to 1994 of having three Chief Ministers in a span of five years would repeat.

Congress, which returned to power with a massive mandate in the state, replaced Mr Veerendra Patil with Mr S. Bangarappa. Mr Veerappa Moily replaced Mr Bangarappa following heightened dissidence against him.

In the Assembly polls held in 1994, Janata Dal trounced Congress.

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