BJP Pulls up Lawmaker RK Singh for Remarks on Bihar Polls: Sources

New Delhi: Former home secretary and BJP lawmaker RK Singh has been taken to task by his party for his critical comments about the party's performance in the aftermath of the Bihar assembly elections.

The lawmaker was summoned by the party's organisational general secretary Ram Lal, who expressed extreme displeasure, said party sources.

Mr Singh was asked not to make any controversial comments and raise issues only in party forums, the sources added.

In an exclusive interview to NDTV after the Bihar results, Mr Singh had said, "We thought we were a party with a difference. We thought we would give a clean government and then you give tickets to criminals... It is very sad, very bad."

Mr Singh said he was "ashamed" that the party had "come down to this level". "I had made my concerns known but they were not viewed," he had added.

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He had also said he welcomed the joint statement by BJP veterans including LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, which had criticised the party's top leadership for a range of decisions.  

Mr Singh has been one of the several BJP leaders who had citicised the party over its poor showing in the Bihar assembly elections. It was capped by last week's statement from the party veterans that took on the party leadership in very strong terms.

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This is the first move by the BJP to haul up those who had spoken out of turn against the decisions of the party high command.

During the Bihar poll campaign too, Mr Singh had publicly protested against the candidates chosen by the BJP-led NDA, claiming that his party gave tickets to people with criminal backgrounds.

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He had stressed that some of them were not "ordinary criminals" but those on whom government had declared rewards.

During the polls Mr Singh was snubbed by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh. The home minister had trashed singhs allegation that criminals were given tickets in Bihar Assembly elections.

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"In the BJP, ticket distribution is done fairly considering all aspects," the Home Minister had said.