Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa appeared relaxed as he discussed politics — and even spoke of taking some time off his hectic schedule. “Can I have some time off tomorrow, for sightseeing maybe, where I can spend some time in solitude,” he asked his associates, in his room in Karnataka Bhawan late Thursday.

One of his aides, Captain Ganesh Karnik, suggested the Akshardham Temple in East Delhi as an option. “Can’t I spend some time at the Raj Ghat,” asked Yeddyurappa. “Or would some political meaning be read into it.”

The conversation remained inconclusive, but it perhaps best explained the dilemma of the BJP’s first Chief Minister down South, who faced a no-holds-barred attack from the mining magnates-turned BJP leaders from Bellary in the state, before giving him some respite late on Thursday when party leaders claimed to have arrived at a compromise formula of sorts.

During his meeting with L K Advani on Thursday, where they discussed the situation in the state, the Chief Minister said he invited the senior party leader for the bhoomi poojan for a new township in the flood-affected districts of the state. The new township being planned in the flood-ravaged districts is “inspired by former President APJ Abdul Kalam’s Vision 2020”, said an aide. The CM is now scheduled to meet the Prime Minister on Friday to invite him for the bhoomi poojan.