Dropped BJP ministers to appeal to party high command

8220;My growing popularity in the party for doing well as the Minister for Health might have made some senior state leaders in the BJP jealous,8221; he said while replying to a question. Meanwhile, several supporters of Sigriwal, who was Minister for Art and Culture, held a sit-in before the

BJP headquarters here to lodge protest with state party president Radhamohan Singh for not retaining him in the cabinet.

Earlier during the day, supporters of senior BJP MLA Rameshwar Prasad Chaurasia burned the effigies of deputy chief minister-cum-finance minister Sushil Kumar Modi and state BJP president Singh for denying him a ministerial berth. Kumar had dropped 10 of his ministerial colleagues 8212; eight from his JDU and two of the BJP8212;ahead of expanding his over 28-month-long ministry and inducted 19 new faces, including 17 of the cabinet rank.

Four of the eight JDU MLAs, who were also dropped, were appointed as new vice-presidents of the state unit of the party. JDU MLAs Rameshwar Paswan, Baijnath Prasad Mahato, Manzar Alam and Arjun Rai were appointed new vice-presidents of the state unit of ruling JDU, a release issued by the party here said. State JDU president Rajiv Ranjan Singh appointed them new vice-presidents in consultation with party president Sharad Yadav.