Rupal Tadvi approached Vijay Rupani, shouting, "I want to meet him..I want to meet him."
There was high drama at Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani's election rally at Kevadia Colony in the Vadodara district on Friday. A 26-year-old woman, daughter of a soldier who died in the line of duty, broke the security cordon and made a dash towards the dais where the chief minister was speaking, only to be stopped mid-way and dragged away by policewomen. A video of the incident, showing the woman struggling to escape while being taken away by the police, has gone viral.
The woman, identified as Rupal Tadvi, has alleged that the government did not give a piece of land promised to her family after her father, Ashok Tadvi, who was with the BSF, was killed in action.
While Mr Rupani was addressing the rally, Ms Tadvi, who was sitting in the audience, suddenly ran towards the stage, shouting, "I want to meet him..I want to meet him."
However, before she could go near the chief minister, woman police officials took her away. Mr Rupani announced from the stage that "I will meet you after this programme". He reportedly met Ms Tadvi after the rally.
The incident has sparked a war of words between the Congress and the BJP just three days ahead of Gujarat elections. Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi posted the video of the incident on Twitter and said, "BJP's arrogance at its peak".
In the video, while the woman is being dragged away, Mr Rupani can be heard slamming Mr Gandhi in his speech.
Mr Gandhi, who tweeted in Hindi, alleged that Mr Rupani, whom he called a "param deshbhakt", has shamed humanity by "throwing away the daughter of a soldier killed in the line of duty".
Mr Rupani shot back on Twitter, saying "only the BJP government has respected the soldiers who defend our borders." He also slammed the Congress on One Rank, One Pension and the Adarsh Society scam.
"Will the Congress answer for insulting soldiers by not implementing One Rank One Pension for years?" Mr Rupani tweeted.
With inputs from PTI