New Delhi, Jan 17 (IT): Bihar BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha has been a vocal critic of PM Narendra Modi for a long time now. SO much so that political watchers wondered when the party is going take a call on him and expel him. Finally, this week, Bihar deputy CM Sushil Modi has returned fire.

Shatrughan Sinha has come under the influence of fellow party leader Yashwant Sinha, Sushil Modi has said. Shatrughan Sinha should quit the party considering the problems he has with the BJP, Sushil Modi also said.

"The way he talks about the BJP... the kind of language he uses... he should quit," Sushil Modi said at an event organised by a TV channel in Patna this week.

"Why is he in the BJP... he abuses the party and then says he is in the BJP?" Sushil Modi questioned. "Yashwant Sinha ki sangat mein chale gaye hai [He is under the influence of Yashwant Sinha]," Sushil Modi also said.

Yashwant Sinha, just like Shatrughan Sinha, is a vocal critic of the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre. Both, however, remain card-carrying members of the BJP.

Sinha has not shied away from taking on PM Narendra Modi directly. Earlier this month, Sinha criticised PM Modi for only taking part in staged interviews and not answering "candid" and "extempore" questions from "genuine journalists".

Earlier in December, Sinha said that the Narendra Modi government had become a one-man show "I am not against him (Modi). I am personally against the one-man show and the two-men army. They are running the country. What kind of scene is this?" Sinha said.

The BJP has largely ignored Sinha's criticism.