Arun Jaitley plays down reports of his party sidelining senior leaders

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Arun Jaitley on Monday played down reports that his party had sidelined its senior leaders after elevation of Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate for upcoming polls.

"There is no question. We always had respect for our senior leaders and it would be so," Jaitley said.

Jaitley also hit out at the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for its alleged anti-Modi stand.

"They proved to be disaster as far as running of the government is concerned. Secondly, they changed their political strategy. They began with anti-corruption plank, and now their entire strategy is anti-Modi. They don't even mention the Congress. As a result of these two reasons, their support has declined rapidly," he added.

Upset over the denial of a Lok Sabha ticket, Jaswant Singh filed his nomination papers as an Independent candidate from Barmer in Rajasthan, earlier in the day.

The Central Election Committee of the BJP decided on Friday not to give in to Jaswant Singh's demand to grant him a ticket to contest the general elections from Barmer.

The rejection of Jaswant Singh request comes soon after another leader L.K. Advani was persuaded to contest from Gandhinagar, instead of his preferred choice of Bhopal.