"I am a staunch devotee of BJP," Anil Vij said on X, formerly Twitter.
Former Haryana Minister Anil Vij is upset with BJP leaders and supporters who have attacked him for moving down the "Modi ka Pariwar" tagline in his bio on X, formerly Twitter. In a lengthy post on the social media platform today, Mr Vij accused those targeting him of playing foul and suggested that they should have allowed him to clarify the matter before mounting a public attack.
When the leaders of the BJP started the "Modi ka Pariwar' campaign on social media, most put the words in brackets next to their name. So did Mr Vij, but after being dropped from the Haryana cabinet, his X bio read "Anil Vij Ex - Home Minister Haryana, India". The next line read "Ex - Home and Health Minister Haryana, India (Modi ka Pariwar)" -- a change many interpreted as a sign of his angst and rebellion.
"Everyone knows that I have become 'ex' now and I should write 'ex' everywhere," Mr Vij said in his Hindi post.
"But when I started writing X in my profile on X, the number of letters to be written in the name exceeded the character count, so (Modi's family), which is me, had to be removed from the top and placed below, which gave some people an opportunity to play (foul)," read a rough translation of his post.
"Please fix it now. I am a staunch devotee of BJP. If you had talked to me before playing on this, you would have got a chance to hear a clarification and this would not have happened,' he added.
Mr Vij was dropped from the cabinet after the recent assembly election and made waves by walking out of a legislature party meeting where Nayab Saini was chosen the leader and hence the Chief Minister. A day later, he skipped Mr Saini's oath ceremony too.
As a wave of criticism and speculation broke, he took a step back, declaring himself a "bhakt of the BJP". "Situations may change but I will continue to work for the party," he told reporters.
Party sources said Mr Vij was hoping for the top post after Manohar Lal Khattar was removed and was expressing disappointment when Mr Saini was chosen for elevation.
This especially because the six-time MLA was one of the frontrunners for the Chief Minister post after the BJP came to power in the state. Then the party chose Mr Khattar, a first-time MLA, for the post. In the Khattar government, Mr Vij had built a reputation of a tough, result-oriented minister and became popular because of his prompt solutions to people's complaints.