Meeting on resolving Karnataka crisis inconclusive

The meeting between BJP central leaders and beleaguered Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa here today on the leadership crisis in the state remained inconclusive but the leaders are likely to meet again.

BJP president Rajnath Singh held a meeting with senior party leaders Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, M Venkaiah Naidu and Ananth Kumar this morning, and Yeddyurappa joined them later.

While leaving the meeting venue, the chief minister said he will meet Singh and other senior leaders again.

"Talks are still on," Naidu said, after the meeting.

Naidu and Swaraj, whom the dissidents met earlier, tried to convince Yeddyurappa on certain demands of the Reddy brothers but sources said no consensus could be reached.

While Yeddyurappa has sent overtures to the dissident camp and even met speaker Jagadish Shettar, who is their chief ministerial candidate, the Reddy brothers have refused to meet him.

The chief minister, who arrived here last night to meet central party leaders, had said he was trying to meet the Reddy brothers (tourism minister Janardhana Reddy and revenue minister Karunakara Reddy) to resolve the crisis.

Yeddyurappa and the central leadership have ruled out change of guard in Karnataka but are open to negotiations with the Reddy brothers on their other demands.

However, Janardhana Reddy appeared to be adamant on Yeddyurappa's removal in protest against his style of functioning.