In his letter, Jaitley said that even if the permission is now granted at this late hour, there was no opportunity to advertise the rally.
“Under these circumstances, the BJP would not be organising any of the three functions in Varanasi tomorrow,” he said.
A copy of the letter was sent to the returning officer also with “a request that he may not process any of the permissions” the BJP had sought.
The crowded Veeniya Bagh area, where BJP had sought permission, has a record of communal tension and law order incidents were feared. The BJP insists that it will hold Modi's rally only in this place and not elsewhere.
Demanding immediate removal of Varanasi Returning Officer Pranjal Yadav, senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley said he along with his party leaders including Amit Shah will hold a protest dharna outside Banaras Hindu University as well as outside the Election Commission in Delhi.
The local BJP MLA Shyam Devrai Choudhary has already started a dharna outside the office of district authorities.
At the party briefing in Delhi, BJP vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said hurdles are being created to prevent Modi from putting across his point of view and campaigning in Varanasi and alleged a “political conspiracy” behind denial of permission over “laughable” excuses cited by poll officials.
Following the controversy, BJP said it has been forced to cancel his public rally and the Ganga Arti programme due to the “biased” behaviour of the district authorities.
Jaitley, who has been camping in the constituency of BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate, attacked the three-member Election Commission saying, “When weak people sit in high positions, democracy is under threat.”
The administration is gearing up for any eventuality tomorrow in view of Modi's revised plan.
