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Updated: Feb 19, 2020 02:15 IST

Even as followers of chief minister B S Yediyurappa prepare to celebrate his birthday on February 27 , trouble seems to be brewing in the Karnataka unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

On Monday night, more than 20 “original” BJP MLAs met at the residence of former chief minister Jagadish Shettar, who is minister of large and medium scale industries in Yediyurappa’s cabinet. The legislators are said to be unhappy at the recent cabinet expansion in which only turncoat MLAs who joined the party after quitting the Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) were made ministers, several MLAs who did not want to be named said.

The legislators, primarily from northern Karnataka, are said to have met to come together to demand a change in leadership, said the MLAs quoted above

Shettar, who met Yediyurappa, told journalists: “I am a minister and several current and former legislators keep meeting me. They had come to discuss certain things about the developmental activities of their constituencies and then they left. Too much should not be read into this. Can I ask them not to meet me?”

The fact that several party heavyweights like Murugesh Nirani, Umesh Katti, C P Yogeshwar and others who were ministerial aspirants chose to meet in a group with Shettar, is being seen as an attempt to send a message to the party high command over the sidelining of loyalist MLAs and the preference given to turncoats. The CM did not respond to questions on this issue.

An unsigned letter allegedly written by his close followers in Kannada and was being circulated on social media asked the CM to step down. In the letter, the author(s) effusively praise Yeddiyurappa’s role in bringing the party back to power in Karnataka, but accuse him of being “weak, helpless and inactive’”due to age-related health issues and thus request him to move aside.

Asking Yediyurappa, 76, to retire from electoral politics and become a “Margadarshak” (guide), the letter also says his experience could be better utilised as a governor. The anonymously authored letter says that the CM’s family, particularly his younger son B Y Vijayendra, was interfering in the administration; it says the CM, who wants to remain the tallest leader of the Veerashiva –Lingayat community, is not allowing anybody else to grow. Incidentally, Shettar is seen as a Lingayat leader and that was one of the reasons he was made CM when Yediyurappa rebelled and left the BJP in 2012.

A BJP spokesperson, Go Madhusudhan, made light of any threat to stability of the government. “Shettar has already clarified that some legislators met him for constituency work. Too much is being read into the meeting. Shettar is a party loyalist.”

Asked about the anonymous letter, Madhusudhan said: “I haven’t seen this letter. It maybe a fake one put together by opponents of the party...”

Congress spokesperson Brijesh Kalappa tweeted on Monday: “22 BJP MLA’s are meeting very late in the night at former CM and present Karnataka minister Jagadish Shettar’s residence. @BSYBJP has historically always enjoyed short-lived tenures.”

A Yediyurappa confidant who did not want to be named said: “Our leader is number one to number ten in Karnataka BJP. Those demanding he step down don’t they realise what happened to the party when he started KJP. BJP was reduced to 44 seats...” KJP is short for Karnataka Janata Paksha, which Yediyurappa formed in 2012 and merged with the BJP two years later.

Political analyst Prof Harish Ramaswamy said even though the party high command may eventually want to replace Yediyurappa considering his age, they have no credible replacement. “He is like the proverbial hot ghee. They can neither swallow nor spit. After all he remains there biggest vote getter as seen during the by-polls.”

Dismissing reports of tension brewing in the Karnataka unit of the party; a senior BJP functionary in Delhi said, “Karnataka has a stable government under a stable leader.”