BJP president Amit Shah's proposed visit to Patna on February 16 cancelled in wake of Pulwama incident

PATNA: BJP chief Amit Shah’s scheduled visit to the state capital on February 16 (Saturday) was cancelled on Friday after the party decided not to hold the two-day national convention of its ‘OBC Morcha’ in the wake of loss of 40 CRPF Jawans in the worst-ever terror attack in Pulwama on Thursday.

Over 5,000 delegates of the party’s ‘OBC (other backward classes) Morcha’ including its national office-bearers, ministers, MPs and legislators from different states had already arrived at the Bapu Sabhagar here to participate in the two-day convention.

The delegates and VIP guests had already taken their seats in the auditorium and at the dais, respectively, as per the rescheduled time at 2 pm on Friday. But it was cancelled after holding a two-minute silence in the respect of the 40 CRPF men killed in the terror attack. BJP’s national general secretary and Bihar Incharge Bhupender Yadav announced cancellation of the Morcha’s national convention.

“As the convention stands cancelled, now Shah will not be coming here tomorrow,” State BJP spokesperson Nikhil Anand told TOI. Shah was to address the closing ceremony of the convention on Saturday.

As per the initial schedule, the convention was to begin at 11 am at the Bapu Sabhagar with the lighting of lamp by Union home minister Rajnath Singh and Jharkhand CM Raghubar Das.

As Singh’s scheduled visit to Patna was cancelled on Thursday late evening in the wake of Pulwama terror attack, the state BJP leadership informed media on Friday morning that the inaugural session of the convention had been re-scheduled and it would now be inaugurated at 2 pm by Jharkhand CM Raghubar Das and Bihar deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi. But later, Das programme to visit Patna was also cancelled in the wake of Pulwama incident.

Later, the party decided to cancel the entire session of the two-day convention.