Incidentally, one key campaign points that Advani was planning to raise during his campaign was internal security and the Rampur rally was even named “Suraksha Sankalp Rally”. This is the second time that Advani has cancelled a yatra midway. In 2005, following the terrorist strike in Ayodhya, he had started the Bharat Suraksha Yatra. It was called off midway after Pramod Mahajan’s killing.

Through the current string of rallies, Advani hoped to gain the first-mover advantage in the next general election. While a section of the party felt that it was a bit too early to get into election mode, the view that 10 state Assembly elections of 2008 and the general election of 2009 could be collapsed into an integrated campaign prevailed.

Now that the external environment has forced the party to rethink its programme, leaders are trying to see the bright side of it. They say the party will reschedule the campaign closer to the elections. Advani was to address meetings at Rampur, Davangere, Delhi, Ranchi, Varanasi, Baripada, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Jammu and one in Haryana.