New Delhi, July 20: The BJP has shifted its spotlight from “tainted” ministers to “criminal” ministers and the one who tops its hit list is Sibu Soren

Using the arrest warrant against the Union coal minister as a kick-off, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is said to have termed the Soren episode “unfortunate”.

At the bi-weekly BJP parliamentary party meeting, Vajpayee expressed surprise that a warrant was issued against a central minister, said V.K. Malhotra, the party spokesman.

Malhotra said his party would urge the Lok Sabha Speaker to convene an all-party meeting to discuss the propriety and ethics involved in making MPs with a “criminal” background ministers. “If executive and legislature do not decide such matters, the courts will be forced to take decisions,” he said.

Soren, however, is not the only one on the hit list. Controversial Bihar politician Pappu Yadav and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) leader Suraj Bhan are also on the Opposition’s radar.

Yadav, also in the LJP, has recently been in the news after the Supreme Court directed the Bihar government to send him back to jail though he was released on “health” grounds. Media reports said the LJP leader reportedly went campaigning in Madhepura for Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Laloo Prasad Yadav in the Lok Sabha polls. He is now keen to contest the by-election there as an RJD-LJP candidate. The seat was vacated by Laloo Prasad after he won from Chhapra as well.