Shoe thrown at Rahul Gandhi in Uttarakhand poll rally

[s_alappat]

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Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi was at the receiving end of a flying shoe at a rally in Dehradun, Uttarakhand on Monday afternoon.

The shoe flew past him and the offender, identified as one Kuldeep, was immediately taken into custody. Gandhi was heard requesting security officers not to beat up the man.

Shoes seem to be flying thick and fast in Uttarakhand this poll season with one thrown last Saturday at Team Anna in Dehradun.

Arvind Kejriwal was addressing the gathering at Lord Venkateshwara Hall when a shoe whizzed past him. But it missed the social activist, as well as fellow anti-graft campaigners Kiran Bedi and Manish Sisodia who were on the dais. The Uttarakhand police arrested the attacker Kishan Lal, 35.

Rahul addressed a series of political rallies in the area on Monday. In Rishikesh, in a bid to puncture the ruling BJP's pro-Khanduri campaign, he asked why the current chief minister was removed in his earlier stint if he was so badly needed now.

"BJP may need Khanduriji but people of the state don't need him, they need development. I want to ask BJP if he (Khanduri) is so badly needed then why was he removed (in 2009)," asked Gandhi at an election rally.

As he began the second leg of the poll campaign in the hill state where Assembly elections are due on January 30, Gandhi also attacked BJP for adopting double standards on the issue.

[meera98]

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