JD(U) cancelled Nitish Kumar's rally in UP as it was going to be flop show: BJP

NEW DELHI: Janata Dal (United) cancelled Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's rally in Uttar Pradesh after realising that the event would be a "flop show", the BJP said Friday, rejecting the charge that the Yogi Adityanath government denied permission for it.

The JD(U), a day earlier, claimed that Kumar's December 24 public rally in Uttar Pradesh's Rohaniya Assembly constituency was cancelled after the local authorities refused to grant permission for it. Rohaniya Assembly segment is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency.

"They cancelled the rally on their own realising that it is going to be a flop show with low participation of people. It's because that area is a stronghold of the Apna Dal and the BJP," former Bihar deputy chief minister and BJP MP Sushil Kumar Modi told PTI at Parliament Complex.

JD(U) leader and Bihar Rural Development Minister Shrawan Kumar on Thursday told PTI that Kumar's rally had to be cancelled as the Jagatpur Inter College administration in Varanasi's Rohaniya, where the event was to be held, refused to grant permission for it "because of the pressure by the local administration and the state government".

"I spoke to the Inter college chairman Ajay Singh. He said they told that construction of the boundary of the campus is underway and that is why there is difficulty in allowing the event to happen in the campus," Sushil Modi said, dismissing the JD-U leader's claim.

"After this, neither did they go there again nor did they submit any application... I spoke to the district collector and the superintendent of police and found that they (officers) did not even know about it. Nobody approached them seeking space to organise the rally," the BJP MP said.

"They cancelled the rally on their own realising that it will be a flop show. I dare JD-U leaders to show a copy of the application if they have given any," Modi said.