Giriraj Singh has been asked to call off his virulent attack on Nitish Kumar, sources said
Union Minister Giriraj Singh has gone silent after days of acrimonious sparring with alliance partner Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal United. Sources say he has been asked by the BJP leadership to call off his virulent attack on the Bihar Chief Minister and other JDU leaders following unprecedented floods in Patna.
This is the second time in the last few months that the party brass has had to silence Giriraj Singh in a bitter back-and-forth with its Bihar ally.
The task of conveying the party leadership's displeasure this time fell on acting BJP president JP Nadda, who reportedly spoke to the firebrand minister a few days ago.
Since then, there has been no tweet or controversial comment from Giriraj Singh, or from any BJP leader for that matter.
JDU leaders refused to comment on the development. "How can we say anything on an internal matter of the BJP," said the party's spokesperson Sanjay Singh.
Sources say two senior JDU leaders, KC Tyagi and Ashok Choudhary, urged the national leaders of the BJP to take note of Giriraj Singh's no-holds-barred attack on Nitish Kumar. Even after Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi's tweets praising Nitish Kumar, Mr Singh was on record saying that "when the captain gets bouquets, he should also get the brickbats" for any mismanagement.
His BJP colleague Sushil Modi had earlier tweeted his congratulations to Nitish Kumar for being elected national president of the JDU and said he had "given new heights to justice with development in Bihar and turned challenges of disaster into opportunities to serve the people".
After the crisis in Bihar, especially Patna, because of the heavy rain and massive flooding, a section of the BJP led by Mr Singh had relentlessly targeted the Chief Minister.
Sources said Sushil Modi tried, through his tweets, to dispel any confusion about unity of NDA, declaring that Mr Kumar's primacy in his party will strengthen the NDA. Privately, he conveyed to key leaders that Giriraj Singh's views were his own and had no endorsement from the central leadership.