A protest against a Congress worker’s death in alleged police action led to injury for another young party member when an officer allegedly pushed him towards a burning effigy of chief minister Yogi Adityanath here on Thursday.

Later, BJP and Congress workers clashed in Gorakhpur when state Congress chief Ajai Rai evaded police barricades to attend the slain worker’s funeral in Adityanath’s hometown, 300km from here.

“The police attacked some NSUI (Congress student wing) workers while they were burning the chief minister’s effigy at the gate of the party headquarters here. The police pushed Akshat Singh, a student leader, towards the effigy and his pants caught fire,” senior Congress leader Dwijendra Tripathi alleged.

Akshat was given first aid at the Lucknow Civil Hospital and discharged.

Congress workers had gathered to demand action against police officers who had allegedly attacked and killed party worker Prabhat Pandey, 28, on Wednesday during a demonstration for farmer rights.

“The police lathi-charged us (on Wednesday). A superintendent of police and a circle officer attacked Pandey with a lathi. He was later declared dead in hospital,” Tripathi said.

At a condolence meeting at the gate of the party headquarters on Thursday, Rai said: “We are ready to die now if the police don’t file an FIR against the officers who killed Pandey.”

He added: “Our protest on Wednesday (also outside the party headquarters) was in support of the farmers, who have been deprived of all their rights. We are also demanding better law and order in the state, but the police are killing us for seeking a better life for the people.”

Deputy commissioner of police Raveena Tyagi denied the police attacked Congress supporters and killed Pandey.

“We are supposed to maintain law and order and are doing so. The Vidhan Sabha session is in progress and we cannot let protesters go to that side,” she said.

“We are collecting CCTV footage from the Congress office, and a forensic team too is trying to understand what happened with the deceased Congress worker.”

Despite heavy police deployment on the highway to stop Congress workers from going to Gorakhpur to attend Pandey’s funeral, Rai and over 20 party workers reached the city via different routes.

They were allegedly intercepted by BJP workers near Kalesar Moksh Dham, the cremation ground, in the Gorakhpur Industrial Development Authority area. Eyewitnesses said BJP and Congress workers clashed in the presence of the police.

Rai said: “BJP men wanted to stop me from participating in the last rites of our party worker. The police stopped them after about 15 minutes of drama.”

Rai announced a ₹10-lakh compensation for Pandey’s parents, who live in Gorakhpur, and demanded the government pay them ₹1 crore.

Deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya accused Congress protesters of “taking the law into their own hands”.