Advani, Rajnath skip all-party meet on Mumbai attacks

NEW DELHI: BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate L K Advani and party chief Rajnath Singh skipped the all-party meeting convened by the Prime Minister on Sunday to discuss the terror attacks in Mumbai, as they were campaigning for the assembly polls in Rajasthan.

Expressing his inability to attend the meeting, Advani called up the Prime Minister to say he was busy campaigning in Rajasthan and would meet him on the issue soon after returning to Delhi, BJP sources said.

BJP's Deputy Leader in Lok Sabha V K Malhotra and Deputy Leader in Rajya Sabha Jaswant Singh represented the party at the meeting.

"Their programme was fixed much earlier and could not be cancelled," Malhotra said when asked why Advani and Rajnath Singh did not attend the important meeting.

Advani told Singh that BJP would stand with the government in any tough decision it takes for effectively tackling terrorism, the sources said.

Both Advani and Rajnath Singh have accused the government of being "soft" on terror.

Malhotra attacked the government even while going for the meeting, saying such a meeting was being held for the first time in five years of its tenure. "This meeting should have been convened much before."