No conspiracy in denying Gadkari second term, says BJP

Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday said there was no conspiracy to deny second term as party president to senior leader Nitin Gadkari.

"The mention of a conspiracy in RSS ideologue M G Vaidya's blog for the removal of Gadkari has got nothing to do with the truth," senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu told PTI.

The decision to replace Gadkari with Rajnath Singh was taken unanimously by BJP leaders, who held consultations on the issue with everyone, including Gadkari himself, he said.

The appointment of Rajnath Singh has shown that the president of the BJP is chosen by the party itself and not the RSS, Naidu said.

It must be understood that the views expressed by M G Vaidya are not the views of RSS, he said.

"In any case, Vaidya does not happen to be the spokesperson of RSS," the BJP leader said.

Vaidya had on Wednesday written in his blog that, "When BJP amended its constitution to facilitate extending second term to incumbent president Gadkari, a section of party leaders did not like it. But they did not oppose it openly and since then started working against giving second term to Gadkari."