Lucknow, Dec 7 (IANS) In a sudden change of tack, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati Monday gave her nod to a press conference by Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, permission for which was withdrawn earlier in the day.
The withdrawal of permission had come to light Monday morning when a team of the Special Protection Group (SPG) went to the auditorium of the state tourism directorate hired by the Uttar PradeP Congress Committee (UPCC) as the venue for the press conference to be held on Tuesday.

SPG personnel, who had gone to check out security details, were flatly told to leave as there was no mention of Gandhi’s press conference in the requisition for allotment of the auditorium.

“The SPG sleuths were told that the allotment had been cancelled, so they should look for some other venue,” UPCC spokesperson Subodh Srivastava told IANS.

“Tourism officials declined to give any reason for the cancellation,” he added.

State additional cabinet secretary and the chief minister’s principal secretary V.S. Pandey said: “The government has nothing to do with the allotment or the cancellation.”

The flurry of media reports seemed to have made the state administration change its mind.

Pandey hurriedly convened a press conference to clarify — “We never cancelled the allotment.”

He said: “Some confusion was created initially because UPCC had not mentioned the purpose for which the auditorium was being hired; however, as it stands now, there is no problem and they are free to hold their press conference.”

Tourism Director General Avanish Awasthi added: “We were told this morning that the venue has been booked for Rahul Gandhi’s press conference, which meant we will have to hand over the entire place to SPG and therefore shut our directorate for the day on account of the VVIP’s security concerns. But there is no difficulty now.”