Shut up, Amit Shah tells BJP motormouths

New Delhi: In a somewhat belated move to put the genie back into the bottle, BJP president Amit Shah on Sunday reportedly “reprimanded” the rabble-rousers within the party’s ranks who had recently been making provocative comments on the beef row and the Dadri lynching incident.

A long list of BJP leaders came into the BJP chief’s firing line, with Haryana Chief Minister M.L. Khattar reportedly leading the pack, which also included Union minister of state for agriculture Sanjeev Balyan, Unnao MP Sakshi Maharaj and Uttar Pradesh MLA Sangeet Som. “Khattar, Balyan, Sakshi Maharaj and Som were summoned to Amit Shah’s office and were reprimanded in person,” said a senior BJP leader, who added that Mr Shah took them to task for “their controversial utterances which are derailing the positive agenda of the Modi government like employment generation, poverty reduction and development”.

The BJP chief reportedly conveyed his “displeasure” telephonically to MoS for culture and tourism Mahesh Sharma. “A message has been sought to be conveyed to the party hierarchy that leaders should desist from making statements that create an unnecessary controversy,” the leader said.