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A day after the conclusion of Asse­mbly elections in four  states and Delhi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) central leadership on Thursday assured state party leaders that they would start the process of bringing back former chief minister and Karnataka Janata Party (KJP) president B S Yeddyurappa to the party fold soon.

Senior BJP leaders from the state have met party national president Rajnath Singh, general secretary Arun Jaitley and former president Nitin Gadkari in New Delhi and impressed upon them that the return of Yeddyurappa to the party is necessary to avoid splitting of anti-Congress votes in the state in the 2014 Lok Sabha poll.

The leaders are learnt to have said that they will discuss with others steps to br­ing back Yeddyurappa at the earliest.

“In the interest of the state party, we have placed before the national leadership that to avoid division of anti-Congress votes, it is better that we should take back Yeddyurappa into the party,” Joshi told reporters after the meeting.

BJP central leaders, however, have made it clear that they are open only to a merger of the two parties and not a poll alliance.

Yeddyurappa, who is attending the winter session of the state legislature, could not be reached as he left the Assembly premises soon after news about the Delhi developments started breaking.

 However, he has convened the state executive committee meeting of his party in Bangalore on December 9 to discuss the BJP offer.

Though the BJP took the first step of inviting Yeddyurappa back to the party fold, sources close to the former chief minister state that he also is keen on returning to his old party. Yeddyuruppa left the BJP on November 30 last year stating that the party had totally sidelined him.

Yeddyurappa’s political assessment matches with that of the BJP. Fighting the 2014 Lok Sabha poll as separate entities would only result in splitting the BJP’s votes as it was evident in the Assembly polls earlier this year and help the Congress win more seats. Besides, Yeddyurappa is also keen that his son and Shimoga MP B Y Raghavendra contests the 2014 poll on a BJP ticket, sources said.

It is learnt that former minister and Yeddyurappa’s confidante Shobha Karandlaje is against the merger of the KJP with the BJP. The sources said Yeddyurappa would have returned to the BJP long back if not for the pressure from Karandlaje that the KJP should retain its identity.