Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is reportedly poised to eject former prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu and three other lawmakers as speculation mounts that a breakaway movement aiming to challenge President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s near two decades at the top is to be formed.

Davutoglu fell out with Erdogan in 2016 and was replaced as prime minister by Binali Yildirim. He has previously directed criticism at AKP policies, government economic management and Erdogan himself. It was Yildirim who at the end of March lost the iconic Istanbul mayoral election and then got hammered in the ‘revote’ called after Erdogan and election officials alleged polling station irregularities. Turkey’s deep economic woes in the wake of last year’s lira crisis and Erdogan’s shock defeats in Istanbul, Ankara and other Turkish city polls have made a president who once seemed almost invincible potentially vulnerable to pretenders to the throne.

At a meeting on September 2, the AKP’s central executive committee demanded that Davutoglu, along with Ayhan Sefer Ustun, Selcuk Ozdag and Abdullah Basci, be dismissed from the party, an official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.

The party’s disciplinary council is expected to rubber-stamp the expulsions in the next few days.

In July, former Turkish deputy prime minister Ali Babacan resigned from the AKP. He talked of “deep differences” and hinted that the formation of a new party was not far away.

Babacan, along with former president Abdullah Gul, reportedly plan to launch a movement this year.

There were rumours that Davutoglu was considering joining Babacan and Gul’s breakaway party. But a source close to him quoted by Reuters said that he was not joining them for now, though he was planning a “new step”.