Clashes in UP near Rahul Gandhi`s event, BJP workers allege attack by Congressmen

SALON: Clashes erupted in Salon in Uttar Pradesh on Monday when Congress President Rahul Gandhi was in town to attend an event. 

There were heated arguments between the police officials and Amethi MLC Deepak Singh during the clashes.

BJP MLA Dal Bahadur Kori claimed that they were attacked by Congress workers.

Earlier in the day, Rahul Gandhi began his two-day tour of Uttar Pradesh, with a visit to a Hanuman temple en route Amethi from Lucknow. The Congress president offered prayers at the Churva Hanuman Mandir on the Lucknow-Rae Bareli road hours after landing in the state capital where enthusiastic party workers greeted him with garlands.

According to a local party worker Ram Kumar, the Congress leader regularly visits Amethi - his Lok Sabha constituency - and this is perhaps for the first time that he has offered prayers at the temple.

After offering prayers, the 47-year-old Rahul Gandhi, donning a spotless white kurta-pyjama, came out porting a bright vermilion 'tilak' on his forehead. The Congress leader spent some ten minutes at the temple. The last time he offered prayers at a Hanuman temple was at the Hanuman Garhi temple in Ayodhya on September 9, 2016, becoming the first member of the Nehru-Gandhi family to visit Ayodhya since the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992.

Hanuman Garhi is about a kilometre from the Ram temple at the disputed Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site. Before darshan at Hanuman Garhi temple, Rahul Gandhi had met Mahant Gyan Das.

His visit to temples is seen in the political circles as an attempt to dump the BJP's criticism that he went temple-hopping during the Gujarat campaign only to garner votes. Rahul Gandhi had visited around 20 temples across Gujarat during the Assembly poll campaign as part of a conscious approach to counter the ruling BJP. 

(With agency inputs)