Posters targeting Rahul Gandhi appear ahead of his Amethi visit
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Amethi (PTI): Just hours before Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's visit to Amethi on Wednesday, posters branding him as a "supporter of terror" appeared at several locations across the city, including near the Congress office and the local bus stand.
The provocative posters stirred political tensions, even as police had been deployed in strength to prevent such incidents.
Despite heightened security, the posters that read "Aatank ka saathi Rahul Gandhi" (Supporter of terror: Rahul Gandhi) were spotted in the city early this morning.
The identity of those behind the act remains unknown.
According to official, police had been on alert to prevent the circulation of such material, but their efforts fell short.
Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, on Tuesday reached his parliamentary constituency Raebareli for a visit. Today, he will be in Amethi, his former Lok Sabha constituency that elected him thrice, and later proceed to Kanpur.
Amethi district Congress president Pradeep Singhal said, "All preparations have been completed for Gandhi's tour. He will travel by road from Bhueymau guest house in Raebareli to Amethi, where party workers and locals will welcome him along the route."
Gandhi's official itinerary began with a delegation meeting in Bhueymau, Rae Bareli, at 8.15 am, followed by a visit to a gun factory and Indo Asian Rifles Pvt. Ltd in Amethi.
He is expected to arrive in Munshiganj, Amethi, around 12:30 PM. There, he will inspect the Ordnance Factory and later inaugurate a new heart surgery operation theatre and ambulance service at the Sanjay Gandhi Hospital.
The Congress leader will also visit the Indira Gandhi College of Nursing and interact with students and faculty.
Later in the afternoon, he will leave for Kanpur around 1 pm to meet the family of the late Shubham Dwivedi, who was among the 26 people killed in the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
