Raebareli: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s visit to his parliamentary constituency on Wednesday began with high drama when his convoy was stopped following protests led by Uttar Pradesh minister Dinesh Pratap Singh.
Singh, a cabinet minister in the Yogi Adityanath government and a known political rival of Gandhi in Raebareli, sat on a dharna with his supporters on the route of the convoy, raising slogans of “Rahul wapas jao.” The agitation forced the convoy to halt nearly a kilometre before its scheduled destination.
When police attempted to remove Singh from the spot, a scuffle broke out between BJP workers and security personnel. The minister and his supporters were eventually taken away, clearing the road for Gandhi’s movement.
Rahul Gandhi left his Delhi residence around 8.30 am, flew to Lucknow, and then travelled by road to Raebareli. On the way, he stopped at Harchandpur to meet Samajwadi Party leaders. Gandhi will remain in Raebareli until September 11.
At Harchandpur, Gandhi addressed booth-level workers, where he alleged large-scale electoral malpractice. “Earlier, we suspected something was wrong with the election results, but after seeing the outcomes in Maharashtra and Haryana, we now have black-and-white evidence of vote theft,” he said. He accused the BJP of “stealing elections and snatching away people’s rights,” while praising Congress cadres as “lions fighting to save the Constitution.”
During his two-day stay, Rahul is scheduled to interact with booth-level workers, participate in an administrative review meeting, and attend several public programmes. This is his sixth visit to the constituency since winning the Lok Sabha elections. His previous trip was on April 29–30.
Meanwhile, ahead of the visit, a controversial poster surfaced in Raebareli, drawing attention across political circles. The poster, released by UP Lohia Vahini state secretary Rahul Nirmal Baghi, depicted Rahul Gandhi, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav as “Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh.” Baghi defended the imagery, saying, “Just as Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesh stand for creation, preservation, and destruction of evil, Rahul, Akhilesh, and Tejashwi have emerged as the voice of the marginalized, fighting for Dalits, backward classes, and minorities against vote theft.”
