Shoe hurled at BJP leader GVL Rao during media conference at party headquarters in Delhi

A man hurled a shoe at BJP leader GVL Rao during a media briefing at the party headquarters in national capital Delhi on Thursday.

GVL Rao and other BJP leaders were addressing the media on the decision to name Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur as the party candidate from Bhopal when the man threw the shoe, according to TV channels.

It was not immediately known what prompted the person threw the shoe. The accused identified himself as a doctor by profession, news agency PTI reported.

He was immediately bundled out by security personnel at the BJP office. At the time of the incident, Rao was attacking the Congress for defaming Hindus by framing g “false cases” on Hindutva activists, including Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur.

The BJP has fielded Thakur as its candidate from Bhopal Lok Sabha seat against senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh. Thakur is an



accused in the Malegaon bomb blast case, which is being heard by a National Investigation Agency court.

Seven people had died in the 2007 Malegaon blast and more than 100 others were injured. The case was first probed by Maharashtra anti-terrorist squad. The NIA took over the case in 2011.

The NIA, in its chargesheet filed in 2016, gave a clean chit to Thakur arguing that the witnesses on whose testimony a case was made out against her had retracted their statements. The court, however, rejected the NIA’s plea to drop charges against Thakur.

Thakur is currently out on bail in the Malegaon blast case. She formally joined the BJP earlier this week and named candidate from Bhopal, which has been a bastion for the party. The BJP has not lost Bhopal Lok Sabha seat since 1989. Bhopal Lok Sabha seat goes to the polls on May 12 in the sixth phase of the parliamentary elections.