Bangalore, Sep 19 (IANS): Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state unit chief K S Eshwarappa late Sunday left for Delhi to seek the party's central leaders' help to sort out differences over a cabinet reshuffle.
The two leaders have taken divergent stands with Eshwarappa favouring dropping four ministers and bringing in new faces and Yeddyruappa preferring just to fill the three vacancies in his ministry which assumed office in May 2008.
Yeddyruappa and Eshwarappa are also under pressure from legislators seeking ministerial berths.
Even religious leaders have come into the scene. A group of them Sunday met Yeddyurappa in Bangalore seeking a cabinet berth for C T Ravi, a legislator from the coffee district of Chikmagalur.
Ravi's supporters also held prayers in some temples in the district.
Meanwhile, a group of senior citizens from Mysore held a demonstration outside the chief minister's residence demanding Shankaralinge Gowda, a legislator from the city, be made a minister.
With talk of four ministers being axed, agriculture minister S A Ravindranath's supporters from Davangere district trooped into Yeddyurappa's residence Saturday when the core meeting was on to demand that he should not be dropped.
Yeddyurappa had to give assurance in the presence of the media to the delegation of the mayor, deputy mayor and several corporators of Davangere city that he had no proposal to drop Ravindranath.
The decision to seek the central leaders' intervention came after two days of meetings Yeddyurappa and Eshwarappa had with senior party leaders and functionaries of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in Bangalore on the issue.
"Three or four ministers may be dropped," Eshwarappa told reporters late Saturday after a meeting of the party's core committee, comprising top BJP leaders and RSS functionaries.
However, Yeddyurappa said there was no proposal to drop anybody.
The state can have a 34-member ministry, inclusive of the chief minister. There are three vacancies following the resignation of three ministers.
Ramachandra Gowda quit as medical education minister over a recruitment scam, religious endowment minister S N Krishnaiah Shetty left due to a land scandal and food and civil supplies minister H Halappa resigned over rape charges.
The absence of party general secretary and South Bangalore Lok Sabha member H N Ananth Kumar from Saturday's meeting led to speculation that differences have cropped between him and the chief minister over the probables.
A party spokesperson said Ananth Kumar did not attend as he was ill.