The war in the Karnataka BJP remained deadlocked Sunday, with representatives of both camps meeting separately with the party brass in Delhi.

B S Yeddyurappa’s emissaries claimed they had been assured that the “Chief Minister would not be disturbed”. The Bellary brothers, and Karnataka Assembly Speaker Jagadish Shettar, however, showed no signs of giving up.

One of the brothers — Janardhan Reddy — is expected in the Capital on Monday. The Chief Minister too is scheduled to be in Delhi soon — probably on Tuesday.

After meeting central leaders including L K Advani, Rajnath Singh and Sushma Swaraj, Yeddyurappa’s pointsman and Karnataka Home Minister V S Acharya told The Indian Express: “Advaniji said that a leadership change in the state may not be necessary. Other central leaders shared this view.”

Shettar met Arun Jaitley at the residence of party general secretary Ananth Kumar. Sources close to the Speaker claimed that the “BJP brass was open to all ideas, including a change in the leadership”. A top BJP leader closely involved with the talks, however, said that “in all probability Yeddyurappa would not be disturbed and a compromise formula would be worked out keeping this in mind”.

A faction in the state BJP today charged Ananth Kumar with “engineering the crisis”, an allegation the latter denied. Ananth Kumar, it was alleged, “met the Reddy brothers on the intervening night of October 24-25 for three hours”, and then “met Speaker Jagadish Shettar the following day at a function in Hubli”.

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