Rashtriya Janata Dal expelled its national spokesperson Shankar Charan Tripathi on Monday for voicing out his opinion against its alliance leader Rahul Gandhi for hugging Prime Minister Narendra Modi and subsequently winking at one of his colleagues, during the no-confidence motion debate in the Lok Sabha, last week.

Shankar Charan Tripathi, who is an astrologer by profession, was appointed by Lalu Prasad Yadav last year as the spokesperson of Rashtriya Janata Dal.

According to a report by The Indian Express, a letter issued by RJD national secretary general S M Qamar Alam read, “Shankar Charan Tripathi has been relieved of all his responsibilities in the party, besides cancelling the party membership.”

Speaking to The Telegraph, Tripathi touted Congress President's behaviour as “childish and unexpected” and also called it not befitting a future prime ministerial candidate.

“He (Rahul Gandhi) has been a parliamentarian for the past 15 years. It was not expected from a leader like him to wink on the floor of the House. So many cameras are installed in the house. Ward and watch people are also there. In such a situation he winked. His act was akin to that of Priya Prakash Varrier, whose act of winking in a clip of the movie Oru Adaar Love propped her to stardom,” he had said.

After his speech during the no-confidence motion debate, Rahul Gandhi walked up to the Bharatiya Janata Party leader Narendra Modi and embraced him. He subsequently winked which was also caught on camera.

On a private national television channel, Tripathi had also lashed out at Rahul for making allegations on the NDA government and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman over the Rafale deal with France.