)
A group of miscreants burnt the effigy of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi in Mumbra, on the eve of his visit to Thane district to address an election rally at Sonale in Bhiwandi on March 6, official sources said.
An irate mob owing allegiance to the Mumbra-Kausa Association condemned the move of Congress to give a ticket from Ward Number 59 in Mumbra to a majority community member of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), sources said.
Mumbra happens to be a minority dominated area and the mob demanded that the ticket for the March 23 by-election be given only to a candidate belonging to the minority community.
The group disrupted traffic for hours, shouted anti-Rahul Gandhi slogans and burnt his effigy, sources said.
The seat fell vacant when the divisional commissioner took action against corporator Shakila Qureshi and disqualified her after she kept aloof from the mayoral polls in 2012.
The mob was furious, since the ticket went to the wife of one Ramesh Patil of the NCP, while the seat was held by the Congress, sources said.
The Mumbra police, which dispersed the mob, took two people into custody, who have been identified as Iliyas Satpute and Ahmed Hussain, sources said.
