Mysuru: Embarrassed by the bad publicity received on the opening day of two-day State BJP Executive Meeting being held in city, BJP leaders held a late-night meeting yesterday to broker peace between warring BJP State President and former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa and Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council K.S. Eshwarappa.

The meeting was held after dinner at a secret location and was chaired by BJP National General Secretary and Karnataka in-charge P. Muralidhar Rao and Karnataka BJP General Secretary Aravinda Limbavali. Both Yeddyurappa and Eshwarappa were present at the meeting that lasted till 11.30 pm, party sources said.

Both the leaders were told that their attitude at the Executive meeting had pushed the party to the wall and were told to bury the differences and focus on strengthening the party for the 2018 Assembly elections. Sources said that Muralidhar Rao was upset with the media reports that highlighted the photos and visuals of Yeddyurappa and Eshwarappa not seeing eye-to-eye and the incident where Yeddyurappa did not mention Eshwarappa’s name while addressing the delegates, party insiders said.

Muralidhar Rao reportedly told the clashing leaders that if the internal bickering continues, BJP will not be able to achieve its Mission 150 in the 2018. Sources also said that yesterday’s incidents have been reported to the party High Command and they have conveyed a message that all issues must be discussed at the party platform and not before media.  

Following the instructions given at last night’s meeting, both Yeddyurappa and Eshwarappa, who were in a belligerent mood yesterday, looked like they had mellowed down their stand today as both exchanged greetings while addressing the delegates. Both of them mentioned each other’s names in the speeches and directed their ire at the ruling Congress in Karnataka for not tackling the drought situation.

In his address, Eshwarappa said that the BJP leaders and party workers failed to cash-in on the “Congress misrule” where people were suffering from drought. “We need to send a message to the people that Congress has failed to manage drought despite Centre releasing enough funds,” he said.

After the morning session, BJP Leader Katta Subramanya Naidu confirmed to reporters that the peace meeting was held last night and all the differences between Yeddyurappa and Eshwarappa have been resolved.