Patna, July 21: The BJP today suspended an MLA cosying up to the JD(U), a day before chief minister Nitish Kumar interacts with the JD(U) cadre.

The BJP legislator, Amarnath Gami, was suspended for attacking senior party leader Sushil Kumar Modi. Insiders called it a “mini revolt-like situation”. An unfazed Gami said, “Sushil Modi has hijacked the party. I was not wrong. I simply tried to raise an issue in the party’s interest, which the former deputy chief minister did not like and now the axe has fallen on me.”

That Gami, a sitting MLA from north Bihar’s Hayaghat seat, is not alone and isolated was evident when the party’s national vice-president, C.P. Thakur, said: “The party should have first tried to speak to him and persuade him. Suspension should have been the party’s last option.”

The state BJP chief, Mangal Pandey, said the party took action against Gami for “deviating” from the party line.

To the discomfiture of the BJP, Gami was believed to be “hobnobbing” with the JD(U) though he denied any “immediate plans” to cross over to Nitish Kumar’s side. Senior BJP leader Giriraj Singh, however, smelt a “conspiracy” by Nitish in the Gami episode.

While Modi has been spearheading the attack on Nitish since the JD(U)-BJP split, the chief minister is trying to infuse fresh life on his party cadre and motivate them ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. For the first time, Nitish has decided to interact with JD(U) cadres at his 1 Aney Marg residence during the weekly janata durbar tomorrow.

Earlier, the chief minister used to interact with NDA workers on the fourth Monday every month. Since the split, it has become a strictly party-cadre affair. In the first phase, Nitish would interact with the workers drawn from East Champaran, West Champaran, Sitamarhi, Sheohar, Madhubani and Supaul districts.

Food and consumer protection minister Shyam Rajak said: “The chief minister will finalise the strategy for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls in the districts with the leaders. The strategy for the 2015 Assembly elections, too, would be discussed. He will also guide cadres on measures needed to strengthen the party”.

The JD(U) insiders said some senior party leaders suggested that Nitish get in touch with the cadres, feeling “low” after the NDA split. The leaders also impressed upon Nitish that about 50 MLAs were “opposed” to the split and had expressed as much at a meeting with the party chief, Sharad Yadav, ahead of the split.