In his first comments after being shot at by a lone gunman at an election rally, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Union minister Ravishankar Prasad said on Thursday night that both he and BJP general secretary Pramod Mahajan appeared to be the targets.

"He (the attacker) had indicated at Pramod Mahajan also. But party leaders had Mahajan removed from the dais. It was clear that he had in a planned way come to target Pramodji and myself. This is my guess," Prasad said from his hospital bed in Patna.

• Prasad's assailant identified

Terming the attack on him as a 'security lapse', Prasad said, "How could such an incident take place in front of 15,000 people gathered at the rally?"

He said there was no police when the attacker with revolvers in both hands climbed on to the dais and fired at him. Asked what could be the intention of the attacker, he said, "The intention was to kill and certainly not to threaten."