In moves that mirror how senior Congress leader, Pranab Mukherjee who was angling to be prime minister but was made the President, , the BJP veteran too is treading the same path. Insiders say Yediyuappa is bent on making his son, fill his shoes as the Lingayat -Veerashaiva leader. While the party had experimented with D.V. Sadananda Gowda, a Vokkaliga as  the CM, Yediyurappa leans towards a Lingayat face. When he became the CM again in 2019 and was made to resign in 2022 when the BJP top brass tried to add him to the Margdarshak group of LK Advani and co, Yediturappa named Basavaraj Bommai, a Lingayat, as his successor.

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Now, Yediyurappa, sensing that time is running out, is focused on making his son and State BJP President B.Y.Vijayendra as the next CM in 2028, in the event that the BJP manages to win that election with a majority and form the government. The former CM does not want any Lingayat leader to come in the way of his son's anointment, and has quietly shunted out prominent Lingayat leaders - Jagadish Shettar, Basavaraj Bommai and the Vokkaliga, Sadananda Gowda.  He wants Bommai to get elected to the Lok Sabha, and is pushing for Shettar and Sadananda Gowda towards a stint as Governors in a distant Raj Bhavan.

Party sources told this reporter that in case Shettar did not get the ticket to contest from Belagavi Lok Sabha constituency, then he and Sadananda Gowda would be appointed as governors of some states as the vacancies are expected  in the coming months.  Sadananda Gowda who has held various posts as MLC, Minister, Opposition Party Leader, Chief Minister and Union Minister is not averse to being made governor. For Shettar, angling for the Belagavi ticket and a win, his eyes are set on becoming a union minister at the centre.