Patna: The BJP on Friday sacked its recalcitrant Bihar MLC Tunnaji Pandey whose utterances against Chief Minister Nitish Kumar were putting a strain on the tenuous relations between the two alliance partners. State BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal issued Pandeys order of suspension, copies of which have been made available to the media, a day after the legislator was issued a show cause notice by disciplinary committee head Vinay Singh. In his communication, Jaiswal has pulled up Pandey for having spoken "in violation of party discipline", without making a specific mention of Kumar, and referred to the show cause notice.
"Despite this, you have again flouted party discipline by your speech which proves that you consider yourself above party guidelines. You are, hence, suspended from the party", Jaiswal signed off.
The action came a day after Pandey insisted that he was stating a fact and, when asked about the party notice, remarked "I will reply to it when I receive the same. At the most, the party can throw me out. I do not depend on the party for running my household". What must have annoyed the party more was the fact that Pandey made the remarks after meeting Osama, the son of former Siwan MP MohdShahabuddin, a dreaded gangster-turned- politician who died of virus 19 recently.