Giriraj Singh and (right) Rameshwar Chourasia

Patna, Sept. 8: The two most vocal Narendra Modi supporters in Bihar BJP — MP Giriraj Singh and MLA Rameshwar Chourasia — seem to have suffered a setback in their political status at a time their hero completed 100 days in the Prime Minister’s office.

Giriraj and Chourasia, never tired of depicting Modi as a bigger “hero” than former chief minister Nitish Kumar during the erstwhile NDA days, appear to be out of favour of the central party leadership. While the MP’s wish to be in Modi’s cabinet did no fructify, BJP national president Amit Shah dropped former national secretary

of the party, Chourasia, from his team.

Giriraj was never afraid of taking Modi’s side even when he was a minister in Nitsh’s cabinet. Despite being aware of Nitish’s strong reservations against Modi, he remained firmly behind his “hero”.

He had quoted the folk idiom “Gur khaate hain, gulgula se parhej karte hain (He eats jaggery but takes precaution against eating jaggery-made sweets” to vent his ire against Nitish when the latter had cancelled the dinner for the BJP’s national executive members, including Modi, in June 2010, ahead of the Assembly elections.

Even while he was Nitish’s colleague in the cabinet, the tall and bearded Bhumihar from Barahia would blow hot and blow cold against the former chief minister at the drop of the hat. He emerged as the most vocal face on TV channels in lacerating his “boss (Nitish)” even at the cost of earning wrath of then deputy chief minister and senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, whom Giriraj found “meekly acquiescing” to Nitish.

Chourasia, too, was equally belligerent against Nitish. Through most part of the JDU-BJP’s rule under Nitish’s stewardship, he camped in Gujarat doing the “assignments” given by the Gujarat chief minister then, Modi. He was known of mouthing diatribes against Nitish all through the JDU-BJP rule in Bihar.

Belonging to Chourasia caste (a rural business community dealing in betel leafs), he never became a minister under the JDU-BJP dispensation. But thanks to Modi’s “blessings”, he went on to become the national secretary of the party and the in-charge of Delhi affairs ahead of the BJP rising to power at the Centre. But the new party president, Shah, dropped Chourasia from his team and retained Saran MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy as the general secretary and vanquished Shahnawaz Hussain as the party’s spokesman.

Giriraj, according to sources in the party, was considering himself as the “most suitable boy” to be in the list of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s colleagues in the central ministry from the upper caste, Bhumihar quota with the other two Bhumihar MPs C.P. Thakur and Bhola Prasad Singh crossing 75. But his name was nowhere when the Modi-led ministry was sworn in.

Giriraj had raised a storm by asking Modi’s opponents (read minorities) to go to Pakistan in the middle of the general election. Some party insiders held Giriraj’s rabidly anti-Muslim utterances responsible for the party’s poor show in the Muslim dominated Lok Sabha seats in the Seemanchal region. But what actually dig Giriraj’s grave was the recovery of Rs 1.4 crore in cash and jewelleries worth lakhs from a thief who had stolen wares from Giriraj’s Patna home. “Though the law has so far not found him guilty, his image got sullied,” said a BJP insider.

Neither Giriraj nor Chourasia were available for comments on their “plight” in the party after their “hero (Modi)” became the Prime Minister, a top party leader said Chourasia did everything to please senior Modi. But junior Modi (read Sushil Kumar Modi) was never pleased with Chourasia. The emergence of Sushil as Narendra Modi-Amit Shah’s point-man in Bihar has caused Chourasia’s fall.

“Only Narendra Modi and Amit Shah know when Giriraj and Chourasia will be resurrected. Nobody other than Modi-Shah duo can throw a light on what the future has in store for the Bihar’s fallen Modi followers,” said a senior BJP leader on the condition of anonymity.