Patna, April 14 : Two BJP leaders, who were dropped from the Bihar cabinet on Sunday, protested the decision, saying they would take up the matter with the Central leadership. “I am still unable to comprehend the reason that forced the CM to drop me. I resent it as my performance, as Kumar used to talk about, was satisfactory all through,” Rai, who was Minister for Health, told reporters.

The four-time MLA from Ramnagar in West Champaran district said he would take up with the Central leadership the issue of his dropping “and try to find out what forced the CM to take such an extreme step”.

“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,” 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 — eight from his JD(U) and two of the BJP—ahead of expanding his over 28-month-long ministry and inducted 19 new faces, including 17 of the cabinet rank.

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