Pratap Sarangi: 'I was standing near the stairs when Rahul Gandhi came and pushed an MP who...'

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Thursday alleged that BJP MPs were pushing him and stopping him and other opposition MPs from entering Parliament. His remarks came after some BJP MPs claimed that Gandhi pushed an MP, resulting in their leader Pratap Sarangi getting injured.

Sarangi was taken to hospital after getting injured in the melee when the protesting INDIA bloc and the BJP MPs came face to face in front of Makar Dwar in Parliament.

"Rahul Gandhi pushed an MP, who fell on me. Then I fell down. I was standing near the stairs when Rahul Gandhi came and pushed an MP, who fell on me," the MP from Odisha's Balasore said. Meanwhile, Union ministers Pralhad Joshi, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Piyush Goyal and other BJP leaders visited party MP Pratap Sarangi at RML Hospital.

"I was trying to enter Parliament and the BJP MPs were stopping me, pushing me and threatening me," Gandhi told reporters in Parliament premises.

Asked if Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi had also been pushed, Rahul Gandhi said, "It has happened but we don't get bothered with this pushing around."

"This is the entry to Parliament, we have a right to go inside and the BJP members were stopping us from going inside," he alleged and pointed to the Makar Dwar.

Gandhi said the central issue is that they are attacking the Constitution and insulting the memory of Ambedkar.

Several MPs of the INDIA bloc, including Congress leaders Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, staged a protest in Parliament premises on Wednesday demanding Home Minister Amit Shah's apology for his remarks which they claimed were an insult to B R Ambedkar.

The protesting INDIA bloc MPs also came face to face with demonstrating BJP MPs in front of Makar Dwar of Parliament as the two sides engaged in loud sloganeering in a bid to outdo each other and a melee ensued as the MPs were moving towards the steps to go inside Parliament building.