The Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson in Telangana, Krishna Sagar Rao, said on Wednesday that leaders like Yashwant Sinha and Shatrughan Sinha (pictured above) should resign from the party if they see problems with governance, PTI reported.

Rao said that both the leaders had crossed the party’s “lakshman rekha”, or the disciplinary line, long ago. Yashwant Sinha’s outbursts against Finance Minister Arun Jaitley are “purely disgruntled remarks of an individual who seeks some participation in the government and is not provided for,” Rao said.

The spokesperson said that if the two leaders were disgruntled, they should address it in the right way, using the party’s forums. However, they use the media to attack “our own leaders”, he said. “If they have so [many] problems in governance and they are not finding enough opportunities to voice within the party, they should resign.”

Rao said that the two senior leaders attack the party only during election time as they are digruntled about not being considered for an administrative or ministerial position. “It happened during Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and now it is happening during Himachal [Pradesh] and Gujarat polls.”

The Bharatiya Janata Party thinks someone is “using them” and they are trapped in a “devious plot”, Rao added. “They have become puppets in the hands of special interest forces in the country.”

Criticising the government

Former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha has been at loggerheads with the party since September 27, when he wrote an article attacking the government for the economic slowdown. The op-ed had led to verbal exchanges between him and other party members, including Jaitley, who had called him a “job applicant at 80”. On Tuesday, he criticised the government for introducing five different slabs for the Goods and Services Tax.

Actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha had said on November 6 that the Bharatiya Janata Party must get out of the “one-man show, two-men army” syndrome in the interests of the nation. This is not the first time he has spoken out against his own party. He has also often criticised demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax regime.