Ajay Alok, one of the most visible faces of the Janata Dal United on national television, has been removed as party spokesperson.

This came to the fore when the list of spokespersons and state working committee members was released by the party on Friday.

JDU state unit president Bashishtha Narayan Singh did not answer why Alok was removed.

"People who have contributed to increasing the membership of the party have been given priority in the list of the new state working committee," was all that Bashishtha said.

But JDU sources, who spoke under cover of anonymity, said Alok's comments on issues such as surgical strikes on terror bases across the Line of Control were at variance with the party's stand and didn't go down well with the JDU bosses.

When India had launched the surgical strike on Pakistan in September, Alok had demanded that the video of the operation be released. This, the sources said, did not go down well with chief minister Nitish Kumar, who stood firmly behind the Centre on the issue and supported the stand of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"Ajay Alok did not realise that in today's world, the boss is always right. You have to see with the eyes of the boss, you have to hear what the ears of the boss hear, you have to speak what the boss says and you have to tread the very path walked by the boss. If you make even a single move of your own, you are finished. This is what happened in the case of Ajay Alok - he tried to make his own move and now the axe has fallen on him. His comments on the surgical strikes were one of the things the party did not like," said a senior JDU leader who is a member of the national council.

Alok, a doctor by profession, told The Telegraph that he would continue serving the party and as of now had no plans to look for other options.

"I gave my best and now the party feels that the responsibility should be given to others. I have no regrets and want to say thank you very much to the party," he said.

Another senior leader of the JDU cited one more reason for Alok's axing as spokesperson.

"Recently, a report was published in a Delhi newspaper that a doctor by profession and JDU leader is hobnobbing with BJP leaders in New Delhi and opening the channels with the BJP for a reunion. Such a report has disappointed our leader. These are issues which have not gone in favour of Alok and the party showed him the door as spokesperson," said another JDU leader, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.

In the list of nine spokespersons, there are three new faces - Upendra Prasad, Arvind Nishad and Sunil Kumar.

Alok, 42, started his political career in 2005 with the Lok Janshakti Party and in that year itself, he contested the election from Chainpur Assembly constituency.

In 2006, he joined the BSP and contested the election from the same Assembly seat in 2010. In 2012, he joined the JDU and was given the post of general secretary and spokesperson of the party.

His father Gopal Prasad Sinha is a renowned neurologist who had contested the Lok Sabha election on a JDU ticket from Patna Saheb but was defeated by the BJP's Shatrughan Sinha.