Shourie, upset over the way the BJP is being run, has urged the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the party's ideological parent, to take greater control of the BJP.

'The way he (Shourie) went out in public about the party's internal issues is unfortunate,' Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, the BJP vice president, told IANS earlier in the day.

'If somebody has grievances, there are enough forums within the party for their redressal. Talking about party leadership in public is indiscipline.'

BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy Monday said: 'I am sure he wants action against himself. He wants to become a martyr.'

Shourie told IANS: 'This is what great leaders like Rudy can think and all this is rubbish.'

The BJP has been in a crisis since its leader and Lok Sabha MP Jaswant Singh was sacked over a book written by him which argued that Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, had been over demonised in India.