The BJP is relieved now that President Pranab Mukherjee’s programme in Bihar has been rescheduled, as his original programme would have clashed with the ambitious party rally to be addressed by its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
Mr. Mukherjee was scheduled to visit Patna on October 26 and 27 to address a convocation, but cancelled the programme for October 27, the day Mr. Modi would address the ‘hunkar’ rally. According to a spokesperson of Rashtrapati Bhavan, it was cancelled a week back as the organisers had postponed their plan for unveiling a statue of Babu Jagjivan Ram.
The visit got embroiled in a controversy after the BJP accused Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of deliberately inviting the President to the State on the day when Mr. Modi was to address the rally.
