Jaitley is among first rank BJP leaders: Rajnath

New Delhi, Feb 3 (UNI) Seeking to set the records straight over the removal of Mr Arun Jaitley as party chief spokesman, BJP president Rajnath Singh has said Mr Jaitley is among the top ranking leaders of the party and no political party has ever appointed such high-profile leaders as spokespersons.

''Mr Jaitley is the general secretary of the party and by appointing him as secretary to the party's parliamentary board, he has been given more responsibility,'' he clarified in an interview to a Hindi weekly ''Outlook''.

While maintaining that it was the prerogative of the party president to choose his own team, Mr Singh said he had consulted Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi before announcing his new team of office-bearers and new national executive.

Indirectly defending his decision to drop Mr Modi from the parliamentary board, the BJP president said he had consulted the Gujarat Chief Minister before taking a decision on the issue.

''Many of his suggestions have been taken into consideration while constituting the party's new executive,'' he added.

He maintained that he had taken decisions after consultations with senior leaders. ''There is no controversy over it. Only media is playing up the issue to give it a shape of controversy,'' he said. He also denied any groupism in the party in Gujarat and that he had taken the decision to please dissidents in Gujarat.

Mr Singh said he was fully satisfied with the new executive.

He, however, added that he could not include many competent leaders on the executive due to limitations on its size but he was getting cooperation of all these leaders.

On the exclusion of Mr Sanjay Joshi from the new list of office-bearers, the former UP Chief Minister said the former wanted to spend full time and energy as 'Pracharak' of the RSS and they had acceeded to his request. He denied that Mr Joshi was removed at the behest of former Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani or in the light of the controversy of a sex CD. ''No big leader has ever criticised Mr Joshi,'' he added.

When pointed that the inclusion of former External Affairs Minister Yashwant Singh, former Union Minister Anant Kumar and Mrs Karuna Shukla in the executive showed that still the senior leaders like former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and former Departy Prime Minister L K Advani were calling the shots in the party, Mr Singh said he would not say anything about these leaders.

All have been given responsibility as it deemed fit for the organisation, he added.

UNI