BS Yeddyurappa pacifies miffed Halappa

State BJP president B S Yeddyurappa is learnt to have pacified party leader H Halappa who was upset for denying him the ticket to contest the Assembly elections.

Yeddyurappa held a meeting with Halappa in Shivamogga and asked him not to take any decision that would damage the party's prospects in the polls.

Halappa, a former minister, is a close follower of Yeddyurappa. He was of late hobnobbing with the Congress leaders after realising that he was unlikely to get the BJP ticket to contest from Sorab constituency in Shivamogga district.

This apart, Independent MLC Basanagouda Patil Yatnal is likely to rejoin the BJP soon. The BJP high command is learnt to have given its nod for taking Yatnal back into the party fold. Yatnal, who is a former union minister, is a prominent Lingayat leader from Vijayapura district.

A section of BJP leaders from Vijayapura and Hubballi-Dharwad had been opposing the move to take Yatnal back to the party. But it is not clear whether the party is giving him the ticket to contest the assembly elections.