BANGALORE: Tainted Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa tendered his resignation on Thursday, following his indictment by the Lokayukta over illegal mining in the state.

The chief minister, however, has sent his resignation letter to the BJP national president Nitin Gadkari instead of the governor. According to sources close to him, Yeddyurappa would officially resign on July 31.

A strong believer of astrology, Yeddyurappa has been advised by a known astrologer to resign on July 31 as it could "bring him bright chances to return to power some time later."

Earlier, briefing mediapersons, BJP spokesperson Ravishankar Prasad said that the party decided that it was time for a change in the Karnataka BJP leadership. He also said that Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh will go to Bangalore on Friday to choose an alternative leader.

The BJP top leadership LK Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh and Venkaiah Naidu who met in New Delhi rushed its troubleshooter and party's general secretary Dharmendra Pradhan to convince Yeddyurappa to step down gracefully.

His intervention succeeded, however, the chief minister

is expected to put forth his demands before the party observers Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh when they arrive here on Friday.

Though the news of CM's resignation spread like wild fire, excise minister M P Renukacharya, a close aide of Yeddyurappa, maintained that the CM had not resigned and would not do so. Since he returned from Delhi this morning, Yeddyurappa was busy meeting his close associates and garnering support. He had also announced he would go ahead with scheduled plans of his cabinet meeting.

Therefore, submitting his resignation to Gadkari is seen as his ploy to buy some more time before tendering it to the governor.

The party still has not finalized an alternative name to succeed Yeddyurappa. State BJP president KS Eshwarappa, rural development and panchayat raj (RDPR) minister Jagadish Shettar and party's national general secretary Ananth Kumar are the front-runners for the post. Former president D V Sadananada Gowda, Yeddyurappa's favourite, is seen as a dark horse.