The permission has been granted for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally at Bhabua on October 12. Earlier, Dewesh Sehra, district magistrate of naxal-affected Kaimur, has denied permission for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election rally scheduled for Monday, forcing BJP to apply for a second time with a promise to bring smaller crowd.
BJP on Saturday has petitioned Election Commission seeking permission for holding the rally and lodged a complaint against denial of it despite SPG clearance.
Sehra, who is also the district electoral officer, turned down BJP’s request for holding Modi’s rally at Bhabhua Stadium Maidan, citing security reasons. For a long time, Kaimur, which borders Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, has been a Maoist hotbed.
Later, BJP leaders put up another request with a pruned crowd of around 30,000 people at the same venue. The administration will take a decision on this on Sunday after assessing the security aspects. “We will inspect the ground and decide on the steps that are required to facilitate the rally. The size of the ground and other structural aspects like entry and exit points would be looked into,” Sehra said.
Meanwhile, a BJP delegation of senior leaders Sushil Kumar Modi, Bhupendra Yadav and Mangal Pandey met Bihar Chief Electoral Officer Ajay V Nayak and submitted a memorandum to him.
Briefing mediapersons after submitting the memorandum to the Commission, state BJP chief Mangal Pandey said Kaimur district magistrate was not granting permission for the PM’s poll rally at Airport maidan at Bhabua “under pressure from the state government.”
“We informed the CEO that the Kaimur district magistrate has denied permission for holding PM’s rally scheduled for October 12 in Bhabhua town.
“The DM is deliberately trying to hamper the rally despite the fact that SPG, which has the responsibility of PM’s security, in its ASL report has already given clearance for holding the rally,” he said.
All preparations have been made for holding the rally and people have been informed about it, Pandey said, adding, “I hope that CEO would resolve the issue.”
The application is signed by former deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi, state party chief Mangal Pandey, general secretary in charge (Bihar) Bhupender Yadav and general secretary Anil Jain.