Patna: Union agriculture minister and senior BJP leader Radha Mohan Singh on Thursday virtually declared that chief minister Nitish Kumar needs the BJP to be an effective administrator, and the comment did not go down well with Nitish's party JDU.

Addressing a programme organised by the BJP's farmers' wing, Singh reminded the audience how good work was done between 2005 and 2013 and how the implementation of schemes slowed down or stopped between 2013 and 2017.

Nitish was in alliance with the BJP from 2005 to 2013, and opposed to the BJP after that till he re-united with them earlier this year - though Singh did not spell that out.

"Funds provided for implementation of organic farming scheme to Bihar in the years 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17 remained unused," Singh said. "Now work is being done on this front in the state."

Singh also said no one from Bihar came to meet him in the first three-and-a-half-years of his tenure. "Prem Kumar ji has met me several times after becoming the agriculture minister of the state," he added.

Singh said that from 2013 to 2017, even if Nitish wanted to do something there might have been hurdles in his way.

Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi was on the dais when Singh was speaking. The JDU objected to Singh's comments.

"I am in disagreement with the view of the Union minister," said JDU national spokesperson K.C. Tyagi, adding that Nitish has been appreciated by "one and all" for his work as a Union minister as well as chief minister.

"Even Atal Bihari Vajpayee used to praise his work," Tyagi said.

He accepted that there were "some strains" while working with the RJD as alliance partner, which he said had never been the case with the BJP. But Tyagi maintained that Nitish's style of functioning is not affected by his alliance partner.

"He (Nitish) took a big step like introducing prohibition in the state and at that time BJP was not our alliance partner," he added.