Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav left stage without addressing a joint rally in Prayagraj on Sunday as the crowd broke through barricades and created a “stampede-like situation”.
The rally was organised in favour of Amarnath Maurya who is contesting on an SP ticket from the Phulpur Lok Sabha seat.
Reports said as Yadav and Gandhi reached the stage, scores of supporters standing in front of the stage tried to break through the barricades and reach the dais.
Though the leaders of both the parties urged them to move back, their appeal failed to have any effect on the crowd. Both Gandhi and Yadav were seen discussing something for a few minutes and later the duo left the stage accompanied by their security staff.
Neither Congress nor SP has made any official statement on the incident. News agency PTI quoted SP sources as saying that the leaders left the stage on the advice of the security officials.
They later attended another rally in Prayagraj where Gandhi took a sarcastic jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks that he will turn Varanasi into Kyoto, a picturesque town in Japan.
"Have you heard (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi is winning only one BJP seat of Kyoto in Uttar Pradesh," said Gandhi while addressing the rally in support of INDIA bloc candidate Ujjawal Raman Singh.
"The fight is to save the Constitution. The BJP and the RSS are attacking it, and I want to tell them that no power can tear and throw the Constitution away," Gandhi said while waiving a copy of the Indian Constitution.
In his speech, Yadav alleged that the BJP is after people's lives and the Constitution. "The BJP put our lives in danger with the Covid vaccine and now wants to destroy the Constitution," he said.
Yadav promised that jobs will be be provided to the youth after the INDIA bloc government is formed.