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The meeting convened by Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa to pacify his MLAs did not yield any result as most of the rebels did not turn up.
The CM, however, denied any rebellion in the party and said another meeting would be convened shortly.
The Karnataka chief minister, who has faced many a rebellion from within his party since he took over, faces yet another threat, this time from 40 Bharatiya Janata Party legislators who are headed by none other than K S Eshwarappa, the state BJP president.
The demands leveled by these rebels are very similar to the one which was made at the time when the Reddy brothers staged a rebellion. The CM is giving away too much and is embroiled in too many scams, the rebels say. They have complained that as part of Operation Lotus, Yeddyurappa had brought into the party many legislators from the Janata Dal-Secular and the Congress, and was giving away too much to them.
They quote the example of K Sanganna of the Janata Dal-S who was recently roped into the BJP. They say the CM had not only given him an important post as chairman of a board but had also increased the allocation to his constituency. This was being done by neglecting the existing party workers, the rebels complain.
Further, they also complain that Yeddyurappa was taking too many decisions on his own, thus running his government like a dictatorship. The rebels are undertaking a signature campaign and have called it the 'Yeddyurappa hatao' movement.
Most of the MLAs have decided to meet with the BJP high command to apprise them of the situation.
The high command, however, would not interfere at this moment since it would not want to vitiate the atmosphere ahead of the three by-elections which are to be held on April 9. The BJP is contesting all of them and it is very important it wins since the first BJP government in south India has a very thin majority in the Karnataka legislative assembly.