By IANS,
Mumbai : The footwear-chucking infection seems to be catching. Bollywood actor Jeetendra was the latest target – with a slipper thrown at him during a Congress party road show in a Maharashtra town Tuesday.
Jeetendra was addressing a road show organised by the Congress candidate Manikrao Gavit in the town of Nandurbar, around 375 km from here, when someone from the crowd chucked a slipper at him.
“There were over 3,000 people in the road show at Jalata Bazaar. Somebody from the crowd threw a slipper in the actor’s direction,” said police Inspector B.M. Pawar, adding that the incident took place at 1.45 in the afternoon.
Party activists immediately pounced on the offender – identified as Dilip Ingle – and took him away. The motive behind his slipper chucking was not clear.
An official from Nandurbar police station said no complaint has been registered with them.
Police said they have deployed adequate security in the area, which goes to the polls Thursday.
The road show passed off peacefully, Pawar said.
Jeetendra, the father of television czarina Ekta Kapoor and actor Tusshar Kapoor, is the latest of Bollywood stars entering the election campaign trail in the state.
The Maharashtra campaign scene has been considerably glamourised by the presence of Salman Khan, Urmila Matondkar, Ayesha Takia, Raveena Tandon and others from the Marathi film industry.
On April 16, a wooden ‘khadaun’ or toe-knob sandal was flung at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) senior leader L.K. Advani during a rally in Madhya Pradesh’s Katni district.
Earlier this month, Home Minister P. Chidambaram and Congress MP Naveen Jindal were targeted by people who expressed their anger by throwing footwear at them.