Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was supposed to address a rally in UP on December 24 (File)
The Janata Dal (United) on Thursday said Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's December 24 public rally in Uttar Pradesh's Rohaniya Assembly constituency was cancelled after the local authorities refused to grant permission for the meeting.
Rohaniya Assembly segment is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency.
Senior JD(U) leader and Bihar Rural Development Minister Shrawan Kumar, who is in charge of party affairs in UP told PTI that "CM Nitish Kumar's December 24 public meeting in Rohaniya, Varanasi, has been cancelled as the administration of Jagatpur Inter College in Rohaniya where Kumar was supposed to hold a public meeting, refused to give us permission for the same on Thursday because of the pressure by the local administration and the state government.
"They (college administration) earlier said that we would be given permission. But they refused it on Thursday".
"UP is under Yogi Adityanth's dictatorship. Not allowing us to hold a public meeting of our party supremo in Varanasi is simply a murder of democracy. We will not leave it...We will soon announce the next date of the public meeting. The JD(U) will soon launch a mass outreach campaign in UP to expose the BJP. We are preparing a concrete strategy for the Lok Sabha elections", he said.
Party leaders and workers from the Purvanchal region were supposed to attend the Rohaniya public meeting. Rohaniya is a Patel majority assembly constituency in Varanasi.
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