LK Advani (centre) and daughter Pratibha visit Madurai’s Meenakshi Amman temple during the Jan Chetna Yatra on Friday. (PTI)

Bangalore, Oct. 28: The ruling BJP in Karnataka is scrambling to camouflage differences that almost got the Bangalore leg of L.K. Advani’s anti-graft rally scrapped until the state leadership prevailed by pitching heavily for the road show this Sunday.

One section managed to get the meeting cancelled last Saturday as several top leaders are in jail while a few others face serious corruption charges. But the party leadership then got into damage-control mode, overruling all opposition and deciding to call in the rank and file to back its decision. Advani, though, had issued a statement later that he had not called off the Bangalore leg.

Party officials today said nothing would be left unturned to make the event a grand show. But they were tight-lipped on how Advani would address his theme of corruption when so many senior state leaders are in jail, including former chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa.

The Congress has dubbed the yatra “meaningless”. “I wonder what moral right do they have to hold a rally in Bangalore on corruption,” said state chief G. Parameshwar.

Former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda has termed the campaign a joke but said his Janata Dal (Secular) would not disturb the rally.

Advani is slated to address a public meeting at 6pm on Sunday at National College Grounds in Basavanagudi, a BJP stronghold in the city’s south. The organisers expect at least 25,000 people. No central leader is likely to attend, though.

While several leaders, mostly loyalists of Yeddyurappa, were against the Bangalore leg of the Jan Chetna Yatra, the group led by state unit chief K.S. Easwarappa rubbished the idea and marshalled forces to ensure the event went ahead.

“Some leaders were opposed to the yatra mainly to avoid a confrontation with one of our senior leaders (Yeddyurappa),” said a party functionary associated with organising the show.

But Easwarappa played down the apparent rift. “The party is one and no one can drive a wedge among us.”

Yeddyurappa’s supporters are hurt by Advani’s comments that the former chief minister had been cautioned on the developments that led to his downfall.