New Delhi: Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) parliamentarian Ramesh Jigajinagi on Thursday demanded the ouster of Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, compounding the party’s problems in the state.

“The MLAs (members of legislative assembly) and ministers are fed up of Yeddyurappa’s arrogance and his way of functioning,” said Jigajinagi, member of Parliament (MP) from Bijapur, Karnataka. “They would not give up their agitation till the party’s central leadership agrees to elect anyone but Yeddyurappa as the chief minister.”

On Wednesday, the party national command had rushed senior leader and state in-charge Arun Jaitley to Bangalore to quell mounting dissidence, led by the Gali Reddy brothers, powerful mining barons from Bellary and ministers in the state cabinet.

Jigajinagi claimed that at least 60 BJP MLAs and nine party MPs from Karnataka favoured a change of guard.

“I feel change in the leadership is the only solution. Yeddyurappa will have to sacrifice his position to save the party in the state,” Jigajinagi said in New Delhi.

The BJP has 19 out of 28 MPs from the state. It has 116 MLAs in the state out of a total 225 seats in the assembly.

santosh.j@livemint.com