New Delhi, Nov. 6: L.K. Advani finally stepped in today to carve out a “meeting ground” between B.S. Yeddyurappa and the Reddy brothers and end the 10-day-old Karnataka crisis.

“The differences have been narrowed down. But there will be no compromise on leadership,” a source close to Advani said. But the last statement came with a caveat: Yeddyurappa will get six months to shape up or ship out, and was not expected to be “vindictive”.

Yeddyurappa managed to keep his job largely because of the RSS, which conveyed to the BJP that rather than cave in before the Reddys, it should dissolve the Assembly and call elections. “If he was replaced, it would have marked a new low in Indian politics. Money power (the Reddys control iron ore mines in Karnataka and Andhra) would have triumphed over political power. It might have spurred demands for leadership changes in other BJP-ruled states,” a Sangh source said.

Advani’s intervention came after G. Janaradhana Reddy, who is leading the oust-Yeddyurappa campaign, threatened to walk out of the BJP with “over 50” of the 118 MLAs.

The “50-odd MLAs” are holed up in Hyderabad. This morning, he gave copies of their “resignations” addressed to Reddy, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and M. Venkaiah Naidu. Reddy flew back to Hyderabad this evening. A source close to Yeddyurappa said Reddy had been directed to “disband” the rebel camp and return to Delhi on Saturday to clinch a “full and final settlement”.