A man hurled shoe at the Rahul Gandhi, the vice-president of the Congress during his roadshow in Uttar Pradesh's Sitapur. The shoe missed the mark but the attacker was arrested.

Mr Gandhi said later, that, “BJP-RSS spread hatred but Congress and I operate with love, we will stick to that."

Anoop Mishra, the shoe thrower, claims to be a journalist, he said that, "The Congress has left the country in the dumps in the past 60 years. I have been a journalist for two years and I know. What were they doing when they were in power?"

Mr Gandhi, 45, is on a month-long "kisan yatra", his farmers' outreach in the state where elections will be held early next year. He has completed over 2,200 km and has around two more weeks to go, his aides say.

- Nandini