BJP not approached for cancelling Patna rally: Bihar Police

Patna: Bihar Police today trashed BJP chief Rajnath Singh’s claim that its officers had requested party leaders to scrap the 27 October ‘Hunkar Rally’ after the serial blasts in and around Gandhi Maidan venue. “We deny that our officials had approached any BJP leader with a request not to proceed to Gandhi Maidan to address the rally in view of the serial blasts at the venue on October 27,” Additional Director General of Police (Headquarters) Ravindra Kumar told a press conference. [caption id=“attachment_1221489” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  PTI[/caption] Singh had told a news channel in Delhi yesterday that Bihar Police officials had requested him and the party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on October 27 not to address the rally but they decided to go ahead as cancelling the programme would have led to riots in the state. “We have found out from our officers the facts, on the basis of which we deny the claim that our officers had approached any BJP leader with a request not to proceed to Gandhi Maidan in view of the serial blasts,” the ADG said. Kumar, who called the press conference with the sole agenda of rebutting Singh’s claim without taking his name, also refused to take any question on the ongoing probe in the Patna serial blasts. The serial blasts had rocked Gandhi Maidan and surrounding areas on October 27 before and during BJP’s ‘Hunkar Rally’ in which seven persons, including a perpetrator, were killed and over 80 others injured. The ruling JD(U) has been engaged in war of words with estranged NDA ally BJP since occurrence of the serial blasts over security for the rally. PTI