New Delhi :Narendra Modi has not been given Special Protection Group (SPG) cover by the Centre, but the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate will now get special security similar to the kind given to the Prime Minister and some other VIPs.

After the serial blasts in Patna last weekend just before Mr Modi’s ‘Hunkar rally’, the Union Home Ministry has decided to provide the Advance Security Liaison (ASL) facility to the Gujarat chief minister.

Under this, a detailed minute-to-minute security cover detail of Mr Modi’s visit to any state will be prepared by the local police. The procedure is much the same as followed for those who receive SPG cover like the PM, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul.

The only difference is that a detailed written itinerary of the PM is given to all authorities concerned, and the SPG sanitises all his venues.

Mr Modi will be in Patna again this evening. He plans to meet relatives of the six people who were killed in the blasts. The Congress had criticised the BJP and Mr Modi for not talking about the blast victims on the day of his rally.

The BJP has blamed Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for “gross criminal negligence” for the Patna blasts and alleged that even basic security arrangements for Mr Modi’s rally were deliberately overlooked. Nitish Kumar has denied that there were security lapses on part of his administration.
 
On Wednesday, Gujarat’s Director General of Police Pramod Kumar had accused the Bihar Police of “indifference and laxity” and said that the serial blasts could have been averted if adequate security had been ensured.

In response, the Bihar police said they had ensured Mr Modi’s safety. All the bombs had exploded before he arrived to address the rally. Bihar’s Director General of Police GP Abhayanand also told his Gujarat counterpart, “As a professional police officer you should not be concerned about the law and order in my state as it’s outside your domain.”