JABALPUR: Alleged Bajrang Dal activists in Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur city vandalised the Congress office during a protest against the party's poll promise in Karnataka to act against the right-wing outfit.
Videos showing men wearing saffron stoles and waving saffron flags barging into the Congress office went viral.
A Bajrang Dal leader, however, claimed they held a peaceful protest in front of the Congress office in Baldeo Bagh area but those who ransacked the office were Congress's own men who had covered their faces.
The Congress in its manifesto for the next week's Karnataka polls, released on Tuesday, promised to take action as per law, including imposing a ban, on organisations like the Bajrang Dal and PFI 'which spread hatred'. The city unit of the Bajrang Dal had said a day before that it would stage a protest at the Congress office.
After protesting for 30 minutes in front of the office with no police around, the Bajrang Dal activists barged inside the office and ransacked it, Congress leaders alleged.
MP Congress working committee member Dinesh Yadav said a "pack of wolves" sometimes attack a "tiger" but it does not take away from the tiger's importance.
Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement during a campaign rally in Karnataka that the Congress had decided to "lock up Lord Hanuman," Yadav said those who agree with Modi should worship Bajrang Dal men instead of going to temples. "They are defaming our Sanatam Dharma. The BJP does this whenever elections are around the corner," the Congress leader said.
Bajrang Dal leader Sumit Singh Thakur said they protested in front of the Congress office "after it equated a Hindu organisation that works for welfare, security and culture promotion with PFI, a jehadi organisation." "If the Congress wants to drag us in politics in MP, we are going to give it a reply in its own way," he said. But Thakur denied that Bajrang Dal activists indulged in vandalism. "They were Congress workers....They entered our group and after covering their faces indulged in vandalism," he claimed.
Local Congress MLAs and leaders later visited the Kotwali police station demanding action against the culprits. Superintendent of Police T K Vidyarthi could not be contacted despite repeated calls to know if any case had been registered.
(With PTI inputs)
