Patna: RJD national vice-president Shivanand Tiwari on Sunday said that the BJP leaders must perform all the post-death Hindu rituals for former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, including tonsuring.

"There is a ritual called dashkarm and a family member of the deceased is supposed to perform it," Tiwari said. "In dashkarm people go for mundan (tonsure).... Until the dashkarm is done, the ritual is incomplete. How will these BJP leaders mourn the death of Vajpayee ji without dashkarm? It would be inauspicious."

Earlier, Tiwari had alleged that BJP is trying to gain sympathy votes in the name of Vajpayee ahead of the general election.

"I will expect all the BJP leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah to go for tonsure and they should also cut their nails," Tiwari said on Sunday. "The present lot of BJP leaders already considers Vajpayee ji as their guardian and I expect them to do dashkarm followed by organising Brahmin bhoj in their respective Assembly and parliamentary constituencies."

The RJD leader alleged that Vajpayee had died on August 14 and his death announcement was intentionally delaye because the PM's speech "would have been disturbed".

The BJP saw red.

"What can he say about the Hindu religion? He is the person who did not do any rituals when his father Ramanand Tiwari passed away," said Bihar BJP spokesperson Sanjay Singh Tiger. "He is the person who protested against Hindu rituals. He is making such statements to earn brownie points from Lalu ji."

Tiger said Tiwari has lost his thinking power in old age.