BJP decides to cancel twin yatras

The Bharatiya Janata Party today formally announced cancellation of the remaining part of its twin Bharat Suraksha Yatra undertaken by party President Rajnath Singh and senior leader L K Advani following the "sad and untimely demise" of BJP General Secretary Pramod Mahajan.

The announcement was made by Singh in Mumbai, party spokesman Prakash Javadekar said.

The yatras were to cover areas in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana. "The culminating rally in Delhi on May 10 also stands cancelled," he said.

The decision to cancel the twin yatras, announced in the wake of the Varanasi bomb blasts in March, was taken at a meeting of senior party leaders, including Advani and Singh, in Mumbai, where they had gathered for Mahajan's funeral.

Singh had begun his yatra from Bhubaneswar on April 6 while Advani started from Rajkot the same day.

The twin yatras were aimed at exposing the UPA government's alleged failures on several fronts including internal, external, energy and food security, besides the "minority appeasement policies".

While Singh had so far covered 3,738 km of his 5,500-km yatra spanning across eight states, Advani covered nearly 4,700 km of his 6,000-km yatra across six states. Singh addressed as many as 72 public meetings and 134 small meetings while Advani addressed 170 big and small meetings.