BJP national president Nitin Gadkari, who arrived by a special flight in Bangalore on Thursday night, held discussions with leaders of the faction-ridden BJP in the State.

Gadkari, who was received by Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda at the HAL airport, drove straight to a five star hotel. BJP State unit president K S Eshwarappa, several ministers including Jagadish Shettar, R Ashok, Basavaraj Bommai, Murgesh Nirani and a host of legislators arrived at the hotel and headed straight to meet Gadkari.

Gadkari is scheduled to inaugurate the two-day ‘chintan mantan baitak’ for BJP legislators at a resort on the outskirts of Bangalore on Friday.

According to sources, Bommai and Shettar in a one-to-one meeting with Gadkari aired their grievances against Sadananda Gowda. They reportedly told Gadkari that the chief minister was too accommodative of the JD(S).

They are understood to have told him that Gowda was ignoring BJP MLAs, while at the same time releasing grants to the Assembly constituencies represented by the JD(S) and Independent MLAs.

Gadkari is also said to have held one-to-one meetings with Gowda and Eshwarappa.

However, Gowda and Eshwarappa left the hotel at 12.15 am on Friday, while the ministers close to former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa stayed back.