Advani’s Azamgarh campaign cancelled

LUCKNOW: The Bhartiya Janata Party called off the proposed rally of its prime ministerial candidate L K Advani in Azamgarh on March 28, claiming that the district administration has denied it permission on the grounds of security.

BJP state spokesman Hridya Narain Dixit said Mayawati was trying to obstruct the election campaign of BJP and was targeting its leaders. He said the District Magistrate had denied it permission to hold a rally citing security concerns.

He said in view of the refusal by the administration, BJP is calling of the rally, which was to be addressed by BJP���s prime ministerial candidate L K Advani and Gorakhpur MP Yogi Adityanath. He said the Mayawati administration had on Tuesday not allowed the helicopter of its leader Kalraj Mishra to land in Mathura.

Mr Dixit alleged BSP government was trying to create roadblocks in the election campaign of its leaders. Azamgarh DM GS Priyadarshi, however , said they had not denied permission to BJP to hold a rally.

The additional chief electoral officer Umesh Sinha said the district authorities had not denied permission to BJP to hold a rally in Azamgarh.

Mr Sinha said BJP wanted to hold the rally in a stadium which was denied and the party was allowed to hold a rally at an alternative location. He said the decision to call of the rally by BJP was its own and the district authorities had no role to play in it.