In an apparent variance with his party's stance over the JNU row, BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha on Saturday praised the speech of its students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar after his release from prison.
"Happy about the granting of bail (although conditional) by the honourable court to Kanhaiya & pleased that he's been released from prison," Sinha said in a tweet.
"Hope, wish and pray that he will prove himself worthy of the support that he received from everyone who felt that he was wronged," he said in another tweet.
The actor-turned BJP MP later told PTI he was impressed with the student leader's speech in Jawaharlal Nehru University after his release from Tihar jail.
"He was filled with energy and his body language was impressive as he was delivering speech at JNU after release from prison," Sinha, the second term BJP Lok Sabha member from Patna Sahib, said.
He said he spoke in favour of Kanhaiya because he did not find the young man speaking anything against the country and also because he was a native of Bihar.
"Bihar is my strength and Bihar is also my weakness," Sinha added.
Kanhaiya Kumar, who was arrested on sedition charge on February 12 and released on March 3 on an interim bail, is a native of Begusarai district of Bihar.
When the row over the arrested of Kanhaiya on sedition charge was at its peak, the sidelined BJP MP had defended the JNUSU president which had caused embarrassment to his own party.