Patna: Janata Dal United leaders in Patna are convinced they have a "Shatrughan Sinha" in former diplomat Pavan K. Varma, the voice of the party who has been publicly talking at cross-purposes since the alliance with the BJP.

On Thursday, as electronic media channels relayed the Gujarat exit poll results, Varma launched a frontal attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for attacking his predecessor Manmohan Singh for meeting Pakistani guests and also alleged that the Election Commission was being subverted.

The diatribe left JDU leaders red-faced as Varma still remains the national spokesperson of the party.

"Varma has put us in a fix, he is provoking us to take action against him. We are wondering if we should take action against him or give him the same treatment the BJP metes out to Shatrughan Sinha - ignore him," fumed a senior JDU leader, stressing that if Varma had to leave the party, he should have followed the path of Sharad Yadav or gracefully quit like Kerala Rajya Sabha member M.P. Veerendra Kumar.

Ever since the JDU rejoined the BJP, Varma, a high profile and sophisticated English-speaking face and voice of the party, has almost become invisible.

Varma defends his stance. "I am very much in the JDU and only speaking on what chief minister Nitish Kumar has said about secularism. Even when he was in the NDA previously. In our party's constitution, the word secularism figures four times. We have been against the use of religion in politics and the concept of theocratic state. I am only articulating what he (Nitish) stands for," Varma told The Telegraph on Friday.

However, Varma is no longer seen in Patna's JDU circles and local leaders appear to have forgotten him. He did come across Nitish at the chief minister's meeting in Delhi with JDU workers earlier this month. But, sources said, that meeting was in a group and nothing much was exchanged, except greetings.

Ever since Nitish rejoined the BJP in July, Varma is reported to be uncomfortable though he had defended the snapping of ties with Lalu Prasad. He has spared no opportunity to speak out against Prime Minister Modi and the BJP. At a literary fest held in October, he remarked that were he alive today, Khushwant Singh would have been "shot dead at his doorsteps merely for writing what he did".

JDU leaders said Varma's relevance in the JDU diminished after Nitish joined the NDA. It is JDU chief general secretary K.C. Tyagi who has taken over the role of the party's chief spokesperson.

"Pavan Varma suited the JDU when Nitish Kumar had national ambitions. But just before joining the NDA, Nitish made it clear that his politics now revolves around Bihar. There is no political role in the party for Varma," said a senior JDU leader.