Bangalore: the BJP government and CM DVS Gowda, who lost the services of  Justice S.R. Bannurmath as a possible Lokayukta on Monday here, when he confronted state Governor Bhardwaj in a debate on his eligibility or otherwise are busy vigorously searching for a new Lokayukta, but still within the state, and not from India as is the moral thing to do, when LA has to be free from local political influence. There is equally a curiosity about who comes in as new LA, although 2 more names on the original panel are still available and are not discarded, one of them (N.K. Sodhi) being a Sikh judge from Punjab.

In the proper procedure only a supreme Court retired Judge (like N. Santhosh Hegde, who rejected a second term as LA), or a retired chief Justice of high Court-should be considered for his “quasi-judicial post”, as Bannurmath called it.

B.N. Srikrishna’s and Cyriac Joseph’s names have popped up as possible dignitaries, both from Supreme Court.

R.V. Raveendran is another name under consideration, part from V.S. Malimath, and HC-retired CJ-Kuranga, even Rajendra Baby.

Venkaiah Naidu (BJP leader) has suggested Y. Bhaskar Rao to CM Gowda Justice Rao was CJ here in 1999-2000. This a plethora of good and able contender were available to the CM all these six months, but he hung on to SRB who opted out.