Lucknow, November 12: Rahul Gandhi, AICC general secretary and Amethi MP, has once again entered and exited Uttar Pradesh capital Lucknow, unannounced or call it secretly, leaving the state police in a tizzy.
On Thursday, the Nehru-Gandhi family scion landed at Amausi International Airport in Lucknow, travelled in a small convoy of three SUVs accompanied by a dozen Special Protection Group personnel, about 30 kms away, to address a group of new officer-bearers of the Youth Congress.
He spent about half an hour at the camp and drove back to the airport and flew to Delhi in the evening. In between, his convoy also got caught in a traffic jam lasting almost half an hour.
Neither the local police and district administration nor the Congress leaders had any prior inkling about his plan, and though YC sources claimed to have full knowledge none wanted to be named for the information.
Additional DGP Brij Lal curtly told to Media that he would not like to make any comment except to repeat that in the absence of any prior information the state police would not be responsible if any untoward incident takes place during the visit of any VIP or VVIP. He added that a formal reaction would follow after informing the Centre and getting an explanation on the incident.
Rita Bahuguna Joshi, state Congress chief, said the party is more concerned about Rahul’s safety than the state government. Others said that whenever the programme about Rahul’s visit was conveyed to the state government in the past, some or other hurdles were created to disrupt it, often by way of last minute cancellation of permission given for use of a particular route or venue.
Rahul has been undertaking tours of various parts of the state in the last couple of years but his programmes have never been conveyed to the state administration, keeping the state police department in the dark, often causing panic among the security personnel responsible for VVIP visitors and police.
——–Agencies