Chandigarh: Punjab police have asked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to change the route of Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani's "Bharat Uday Yatra" amid threats by Simranjit Singh Mann's Shiromani Akali Dal-A to disrupt the road show when it enters the border State on Thursday (Mar 25, 2004).

State BJP general secretary H S Grewal and former Minister Balramji Dass Tandon told reporters that the additional director general of police in a telephone message requested them to change the route of the yatra in view of the threat.

"However, we have decided that the route of the yatra would remain unchanged," they said adding, "If something goes wrong then the entire responsibility will be of the Punjab Government".

A five-member delegation of top BJP leaders from Punjab comprising former State party chief B L Rinwa, former ministers Madan Mohan Mittal and Tandon, and party general secretaries Avinash Rai Khanna and Grewal submitted a memorandum to the Governor O P Verma seeking safe passage for the yatra.

"In a democracy, every political party has the constitutional right to put forward their achievements and proposed programmes before the people in the manner it likes and none has the right to disrupt others programmes," the memorandum said.

"Our political adversaries are making unnecessary hue and cry that the yatra will disturb the communal harmony of the country," it said.

They also alleged that "such elements (Mann) are giving such calls at the behest of Chief Minister Amarinder Singh."