Clashes between BJP supporters and Congress workers forced Rahul Gandhi to change his route in Amethi today on the last leg of his two-day visit to his Lok Sabha constituency.
The route scheduled to have been followed by the Congress president -- who is visiting his Parliamentary constituency in Uttar Pradesh for the first time after becoming party chief -- was changed in view of strong protests by BJP workers.
Members of the two parties clashed in the Gauriganj area, prompting the police to intervene and change the route of the cavalcade of Gandhi, whose security is handled by the SPG.
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Gandhi was slated to have reached Gauriganj from Musafirkhana, but the route was changed as local BJP leaders Ashish Shukla and Sudhanshu Shukla, along with a large number of party workers, had assembled on the Gauriganj-Musafirkhana Road in protest against the visit of the 47-year-old Congress leader.
"We did not allow Rahul Gandhi to pass through the troubled Gauriganj-Musafirkhana route in view of the palpable tension there," Additional SP BC Dubey said.
Gandhi took the Jamo Road, where Congress workers stood on its two sides to greet him, and then walked a distance of about two kilometres to reach Gauriganj.
The protesters at Gauriganj-Musafirkhana Road were seen displaying placards which described Gandhi as their "missing MP" and accused him of grabbing farmers' land for a trust, ignoring the development of Amethi and not utilising MPLAD funds.
Some of the placards charged him with ignoring the problems of the local people and health and education needs, and laying foundation stones of "fake" projects.
BJP supporters staged protests against Gandhi yesterday, too, as the Congress leader began his visit to Rae Bareli and Amethi.
As the Congress chief's convoy was leaving Salon, which falls in the Amethi Lok Sabha constituency but is in Rae Bareli district, for his next stop, Parshderpur, some BJP workers raised slogans against him.
The police had to intervene to separate BJP and Congress supporters.
Gandhi faced angry protesters at the Rajiv Gandhi Chowk in Amethi, because of which he could not garland a statue of his father, former Prime Minister and Amethi MP Rajiv Gandhi, there.
Supporters of the BJP and the Congress fought a pitched battle, forcing the local police and PAC constables to intervene.
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