By IANS,
Lucknow : Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secretary Varun Gandhi Saturday addressed a public meeting in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras district through a mobile phone after the state government did not allow him to attend the rally, a party leader said.
“The permission for the rally was taken well in advance. Hours before the public meeting was to start, the district authorities informed us that Varunji will not be allowed to participate in the meeting due to security reasons,” BJP legislator Yashpal Chauhan told reporters in Hathras, some 350 km from Lucknow.
“When we conveyed the information to Varunji, he decided to address the rally on the mobile phone from Delhi. He called up on a mobile, which was kept in front of the mike,” he added.
According to BJP officials, the permission for the rally at the KPA Inter-College in Sikandararao town in Hathras was taken May 15.
“We know very well that the move to not allow Varunji to participate in the rally was taken at the behest of the state government. Actually, Chief Minister Mayawati fears that our young leader would unmask her real face before the masses…It was a politically motivated move on the directions of the chief minister,” Chauhan told IANS.
However, district authorities refuted the allegations by the BJP leader.
“It’s totally baseless. We did nothing to stop Varun from holding the rally,” District Magistrate M.M. Khan told IANS on the phone.
“We had made every necessary arrangement for conducting the rally,” he added.