Varanasi: Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, who was scheduled to hold two rallies here on Thursday, has not been granted permission to do so by the district authorities.
In the meantime, a report, however, said that the administration has cancelled just one rally, which was scheduled to take place at Beniyabagh, saying the venue was not fit for holding rallies which are expected to draw huge crowd.
Further details are awaited in this regard. Meanwhile, a TV channel has reported that senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley and BJP national general secretary Amit Shah are meeting to formulate an alternative plan.
Earlier in the morning, reports had said that besides addressing rallies, Modi would attend aarti tomorrow on the banks of the Ganges River in Varanasi. However, the Gujarat Chief Minister’s plans to woo locals of the holy city were today marred by the local authorities.
Varanasi, where polling will be held on May 12, is witnessing a keen contest as Modi is contesting a Lok Sabha seat for the first time and faces former Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal and Congress’s Ajay Rai.