New Delhi, Feb. 5: The BJP was embarrassed today after L.K. Advani’s much-hyped rallies around the country — to highlight deteriorating internal security — were cancelled allegedly because of a threat to his life.

When word first spread that the rallies would be scrapped because national security adviser M.K. Narayanan had briefed Advani about intelligence inputs on possible terrorist strikes against him, the party issued a denial.

Spokesperson Prakash Javadekar told reporters there was no question of cancelling the meetings. Only the Rampur rally scheduled for February 10 had been “put off”.

The BJP would never bow to such threats, he said, recalling how Advani had continued his yatra even after the February 1998 blasts in Coimbatore that killed dozens. Nineteen explosions had rocked the textile city shortly before Advani, then Union home minister, was to address an election rally.

Javadekar invited the media to a “wonderful rally” in Jabalpur tomorrow and promised to announce a fresh schedule for the Rampur meeting. He said 11 other rallies would take place as planned and slammed television channels for “wrong” reporting.

Other BJP leaders said off the record the party could not afford to scrap the meetings as that would dent the shadow Prime Minister’s “iron man” image.

By evening, however, the party’s core committee, which met at Advani’s residence, had decided to cancel most of the meetings.

Senior leader Sushma Swaraj said the decision had been taken in the light of the “threat” from “fidayeen” (suicide) squads and the coming budget session of Parliament. She said only three of the 13 rallies would be held — in Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Delhi — and a new schedule worked out after March 20.

Sources in the BJP claimed Advani’s security could not be the sole reason and pointed to other factors like the “haphazard” campaign plan and fears of a “burnout”. Top leaders, they said, always faced threats to their lives but rarely cancelled programmes.

The sources said Advani would not like to be seen as a coward but had agreed to abandon the tour as realisation dawned that the campaign had been planned in a “haphazard” manner.

Others said preparations for the polls next year had started a little too early and there were fears they might lose momentum.

There was also a feeling that the rallies — planned in Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir — might shift the focus from poll-bound Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi and Chhattisgarh.

So the security threat, they argued, was just an excuse for the leadership to correct its mistake.