Shoe hurled at BJP leader to protest Sadhvi candidature from Bhopal

In an major embarrassment to the BJP, commotion prevailed at the press conference of BJP Rajya Sabha MP GVL Narsimha Rao at party headquarters here when a man hurled a shoe at him.

Mr 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 hurled the shoe.

The man, identified as Dr Shakti Bhargav, hurled his shoe from the left side at Mr Rao, who had party general secretary Bhupendra Yadav sitting on his left.

Bhargav, a surgeon who hails from Kanpur, was detained by security staff immediately.

According to his Facebook post, Bhargav has been critical about the Modi government's policy towards PSUs and also alleged there has been a number of suicides.

He was ''very angry'' with the saffron party for giving ticket to Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur from Bhopal Constituency. He was also upset over closure of Lal Imli Mills and the corruption involved in the case.

He was taken to I P Estate police station and senior police officers have reached there.

The incident brings back memories when Congress leader and then Home Minister P Chidambaram was also attacked with a shoe. Upset with the the CBI's clean chit to Tytler in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, Delhi journalist Jarnail Singh flung a shoe at Chidambaram at his press conference.

He was the Aam Aadmi Party candidate for the West Delhi Lok Sabha seat and lost but in 2015, won the Delhi Assembly elections.

Malegaon attack-accused Sadhvi Pragya was pitted against Congress leader Digvijaya Singh by the party and she was given the ticket on Wednesday.