New Delhi, July 2 :    New Delhi, July 2:  Questionable practices by members of his personal staff is believed to have cost C.P. Thakur his job. Thakur, who was the health and family welfare minister in the Vajpayee Cabinet, was dropped by the Prime Minister in Monday's shuffle. A serious charge against his ministry was that changes were made in 'Formulary', which could have helped pharmaceutical firms run by people close to him. The 'Formulary' contains a list of medicines and drug formulations that government hospitals and dispensaries buy under the Central Government Health Scheme. The list was last revised by former health minister Dalit Ezhilmalai of the Pattali Makkal Katchi in the short-lived Vajpayee government in 1998. After Thakur took charge of the health portfolio, ministry officials changed the list allegedly to favour certain firms owned by persons close to the minister's family. The list usually remains unchanged for five years, according to sources. However, Thakur, a doctor by profession, denied the allegations and wrote to the Director General of Health Services and the health secretary, saying he had written to Vajpayee seeking a CBI inquiry into the matter. Thakur said all sorts of corruption charges had been levelled against him. 'I have written to all government medical stores not to buy medicines supplied by my son's firms as long as I am health minister. But people stooped lower than that,' he said in an interview. However, the Prime Minister was not convinced by his explanations. Sources said changes in the list of private hospitals where the beneficiaries of CGHS can be sent for certain medical procedures and tests also led to questions. At present, 19 cities are covered under the scheme. The beneficiaries are reimbursed through the medical charges at these hospitals while the hospitals end up getting almost assured business from the government. Corruption charges apart, Thakur could have saved his chair had it not been for the attack by his supporters on the BJP headquarters in Patna following media reports that he was being dropped from the Cabinet. Sources said a senior BJP leader from Bihar, who is very close to Thakur, interceded on his behalf with a request that he should not be dropped. He argued that the BJP could lose its upper caste vote bank in Bihar by dropping Thakur, who belonged to the Bhumihar caste.. But the BJP managers seem to have offset the fallout by inducting Nikhil Kumar Choudhary, another Bhumihar, as minister of state in Monday's reshuffle. The ransacking of the state BJP office in Patna by Thakur's supporters so infuriated Vajpayee and Advani that they decided to drop him even though he condemned the hooliganism. Thakur's charge that gutka manufacturers and other lobbies were behind his ouster was also not well received in government and BJP circles. A TV channel quoted Thakur as saying that the gutka lobby's campaign against him had cost him his job.