Senior party leaders not sidelined: Venkaiah Naidu

KOCHI: Union Urban Development and Parliamentary affairs minister M Venkaiah Naidu today dismissed reports of senior party leaders being sidelined and said it was a 'generational change'.

"Nobody is sidelined. It is a generational change that is taking place. It happens in a family. It happens in political system. We are not in dynasty," he told reporters here.

He was reacting to a query on the dropping of senior leaders - AB Vajpayee, LK Advani and MM Joshi from the highest decision making body of the BJP yesterday.

"Dynasty is nasty for democracy. But is tasty to some people and parties," he said, adding that as far as BJP was concerned, the party believes in democracy.

He said the younger generation has been given an opportunity and instead of appreciating this, some sections of the media were critical.

"They will be active in Parliament. In the coming days, they will be given some parliamentary responsibility also. Senior leaders are senior leaders. They will be advising us and guiding us', he said.

On BJP's poor performance in the recently held bypolls in three states, Naidu said "BJP did not lose anything. It did not gain as per expectations."

"By elections are conducted on the basis of local issues while general elections are fought on National issues, he said.