Rae Bareli: Minister sits in front of convoy, Rahul says ‘BJP frustrated by vote chori’

The protest led to a brief halt of Gandhi’s cavalcade but later the police ensured its smooth passage, even as there was more sloganeering by BJP supporters along the route.

Later in the day, Rahul Gandhi reacted to the protest, saying, “The BJP and its supporters are disturbed as we have caught their vote theft, right from Maharashtra, Haryana and Karnataka to Uttar Pradesh…”

Gandhi is on a two-day visit to his parliamentary constituency. The protesters, led by the minister, also gave a hard time to the local police that tried to disperse them.

They demanded that Gandhi apologise for “not taking any action” against those who allegedly “insulted the PM’s mother.”

Asked about the reason for the protest, Singh said, “We all have mothers, so does Rahul Gandhi. If anyone insults Modiji’s mother, Rahul Gandhi should have stepped in to condemn it and taken action against the person, who is linked to his party. But he did neither, indicating that he supports the remark, which has hurt the sentiments of BJP workers as well as all those who respect mothers.”

Congress leader and former MLC Deepak Singh termed the protest as a “mere publicity stunt by the minister to safeguard his post.”

“The post of the minister carries respect, which has been brought to an all-time low by Dinesh Pratap Singh. He is one of the few who lost the Lok Sabha election last year by one of the largest margins in the country,” claimed Deepak Singh.