SHILLONG: Another BJP leader from Centre who was scheduled to visit Shillong cancelled his trip on Wednesday at the last moment and this time around it was none other than the influential BJP big wig LK Advani even as the BJP leadership said that there was no plan on the part of the BJP leader to visit the city.
Advani was supposed to come to Shillong for a meeting of Parliamentary Standing Committee.
On Tuesday, it was the Directorate of Information and Public Relations (DIPR) which officially asked the media persons to attend the meeting of Advani, who is the Member, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information and Technology at Hotel Polo Towers.
Surprisingly, on Wednesday, the DIPR officials were also not informed about the “cancellation” of the leader’s visit even as the media persons were eagerly waiting at the city hotel for the arrival of Advani.
Police and the district administration were also in the dark about the cancellation of the visit.
However, when contacted, a state BJP functionary said that after a media report on Tuesday, he had contacted the office of Advani to know about his Shillong trip, but the reply was there was no such visit. “Later, the information we received was that he was taking rest at home”.
He also wanted to know how can Advani be just a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee when the young BJP MP Anurag Thakur is its Chairman.
Thakur held the official level meeting on IT related issue prior to his meeting with functionaries of cricket associations in city.
This is not the first instance of BJP leaders skipping Shillong visit.
Earlier, Minister of State for Food Processing Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti cancelled her trip to Shillong.
Besides, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj also skipped Shillong during the official inauguration of the Passport Seva Kendra.