A lunch meeting attended by 20-odd MLAs from the BJP has triggered speculation of a brewing rebellion against chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa.

Eight-time MLA and purported chief ministerial aspirant Umesh Katti, who hosted the lunch at his home on Thursday, said 27 MLAs attended it. Lunches are notorious for having fuelled revolts in the past, but Katti denied the chief minister was discussed and stressed his loyalty to the party.

Last year’s rebellion that brought down the Congress-Janata Dal Secular government had started with a lunch meeting of dissident Congress MLAs where they demanded more funds for their constituencies.

Another such meeting by BJP lawmakers in 2010, during Yediyurappa’s first stint as chief minister, had spawned a revolt — again starting with a demand for more constituency funds. Yediyurappa survived after facing two trust votes.

Most of the MLAs who attended Thursday’s meeting were from the Lingayat community, to which both Yediyurappa and Katti belong. This is being seen as a possible signal to the chief minister that he cannot take Lingayat support for granted.

“Yes, I hosted a lunch for my friends from the party since we hadn’t met over a meal since the lockdown began,” Katti told The Telegraph on Friday. Asked whether political issues were discussed, he shot back: “How can we have lunch without talking to each other?”

Told about the speculation about a brewing rebellion, he said: “We didn’t talk about our chief minister; we only wanted to address development issues in our constituencies.”

Asked whether these development issues were similar to those that had triggered dissidence in previous governments, Katti said: “I’m loyal to my party. But when MLAs meet we do discuss issues concerning our constituencies.”

Ignored by Yediyurappa during ministry formation last year, Katti had famously remarked that he was “chief minister material” and therefore didn’t care about being an ordinary minister.

He has since then been holding meetings with loyalists from the north — the part of the state most of the guests came from on Thursday.

With four of Karnataka’s Rajya Sabha seats falling vacant in June, Katti has been eyeing one for his younger brother Ramesh Katti.

Asked whether the meeting had discussed a Rajya Sabha ticket for his brother, Katti said: “I have already discussed that with the chief minister and requested him to at least bring it before the high command.”

Union minister of state of railways Suresh Angadi, who is from Karnataka, told reporters in Belgaum that Yediyurappa and state BJP president Nail Kumar Kateel would resolve all the differences.

“Internal matters should not be discussed in public. Please talk to the chief minister and state president if anyone has any concerns,” he said.

However, he said party lawmakers should “work for party unity and not form groups”.

The BJP has 117 members in a House of 225.

Among those who attended the meeting were Balachandra Jarkiholi, Shivaraj Patil, Dattatreya Patil, Subhash Guttedar, Goolihatti Shekar, and Rajugouda.

Rajugouda told reporters: “I’m concerned that people are misinterpreting the intent of our meeting, which was just to be together after a long time.”