BJP cancels Bharat Suraksha Yatra

NEW DELHI: BJP on Thursday formally announced the cancellation of the remaining part of Rajnath Singh and LK Advani's Bharat Suraksha Yatra following the death of party general secretary Pramod Mahajan.

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

The yatras were to cover Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana. The decision to cancel the 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.

While Singh had so far covered 3,738 kms 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.