Chandigarh, May 6
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's election rally in Punjab on the last day of campaigning has reportedly run into rough weather. In less than 12 hours after he agreed to address a gathering in Ludhiana, the district administration has reportedly refused to cooperate regarding the venue of the rally.

Upset over the developments, senior BJP leaders and workers are now accusing the ruling Congress party of indulging in a conspiracy to “fail the rally” and also to “kill democracy” in the process. “The Chief Minister has shown scant regard for the Prime Minister's authority,” they alleged.

The occurrence, the leaders claim, is politically significant as the effect of the Prime Minister's rally, on the last day of campaigning, would have lingered on for at least 48 hours. “That is the reason why the ruling party members were so upset about it,” they alleged.

Denying the allegations, senior police officers, on the other hand, claimed that permission for the rally had not been denied. Ludhiana's Senior Superintendent of Police Narinder Pal Singh, when contacted, said they were "inspecting the proposed venues tonight". A final decision regarding the site would be taken on Friday, he claimed.

Giving details, BJP's state unit Vice-President Avinash Jaiswal said, "At about 10 am we received confirmation from the Prime Minister's office that Mr Vajpayee had accepted our demand of spending one day of campaigning in Punjab. Naturally, we were all very excited about it. Full of enthusiasm, the workers here at Ludhiana started making arrangements for the programme".

According to him, the workers were, however, disappointed when the SSP Narinder Pal Singh said the venue—Dana Mandi—was unsafe from security point of view.

He added that senior political leaders then approached the Vice-Chancellor of Punjab Agriculture University after being told by the intelligence agencies that the venue was safe. He, however, refused to oblige on the ground that permission for holding political rallies could not be granted. "Repeated requests," they claimed, "failed to elicit positive response till late in the evening".