Patna, July 23: The JD(U) today dropped Rajya Sabha MP Shivanand Tiwari from its national general secretary and spokesman’s posts, surprising a section of party insiders.

Tiwari, however, has still retained his position as the party leader in the Rajya Sabha.

What has astonished insiders more is the timing of Tiwari’s removal from the key position. Tiwari has been a trenchant opponent of Narendra Modi’s brand of politics all through.

He used vitriolic words against the Gujarat chief minister and RSS chief Mohanrao Bhagwat, putting the alliance in danger (when the Dal-BJP alliance was still intact), compelling the party and president Sharad Yadav to disassociate from him many times.

After the break up of alliance, chief minister Nitish Kumar and the JD(U) are under fire from their estranged saffron ally.

“Tiwari, a socialist leader by training and a staunch opponent of the RSS-BJP brand of politics is more useful as a spokesman in the changed context. Few leaders in the party can attack the BJP the way Tiwari can,” said a senior JD(U) leader.

Asked why Tiwari was dropped, a Sharad aid in Patna downplayed it by saying: “Tiwari is still the party leader in the Rajya Sabha. The party has decided to keep K.C. Tyagi (a close aid of Sharad) as its only national spokesman. Nothing much should be read into it.”

Sources, however, said both Sharad and Nitish had “aversion” to Tiwari, often going beyond the party line and speaking his own mind. For instance, early this year, when Sharad and top BJP leaders were burning midnight oil to save the alliance, Tiwari equated Mohanrao Bhagwat with the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) leader, Akbaruddin Owaisi, saying: “The RSS ideology is propagated among Hindus and MIMs among Muslims. Bhagwat and Owaisi are products of similar fundamentalist ideologies. They are the two sides of the same coin.”

Tiwari, who was in Jaipur today, said: “I am not at all aware of the circumstances of my removal as the party spokesman and general secretary. But I will keep fighting against Narendra Modi’s politics as aggressively as I have been doing in whatever position I am. Fighting against the RSS and the BJP is as much important to me as it is for Sharadji, Nitishji and others who believe in secular ethos of our country.”

He added: “It’sthe time to carry out campaign with more aggression against the BJP-RSS after our alliance ended. I will keep fighting to strengthen secular credential of JD(U),” Tiwari said, adding: “My exit as the party’s spokesman and general secretary cannot gag me from speaking my party’s stand on communalism and communal forces.”