Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had a close shave on Monday when the dais at one of his public rallies in Bihar snapped and sunk twice.

Though Rahul lost a step, he immediately regained his composure and waved back at the crowd.

The incident occurred at a rally at Paliganj in the Patliputra Lok Sabha constituency in Patna district.

Rahul got up on the dais, holding the hands of RJD candidate Misa Bharti and waving to the crowd. When other leaders from the Congress and INDIA bloc allies were taking their positions and the personnel were moving around to provide them security cover, suddenly the wood-and-bamboo dais snapped and caved in around a foot where Rahul was standing.

The Congress MP reacted spontaneously and held onto the others standing near him, saving himself and RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s eldest daughter Misa.

Rahul did not let go of Misa’s hand and regained his step to wave back to the crowd when the dais caved in again. His security personnel tried to move him away but he assured them he was fine.

The chairs on the dais were then rearranged on the Congress leader’s side to block further movement of people. The public meeting then started.

Rahul addressed rallies in Bakhtiyarpur (Patna Sahib), Paliganj (Patliputra) and Jagdishpur (Bhojpur) to campaign for Abhijit Anshul (Congress), Misa Bharti (RJD) and Sudama Prasad (CPIML), respectively. RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav shared the dais with him at all the rallies.

During the Jagdishpur campaign, the Congress leader slammed the Agnipath scheme for short-term recruitment in the armed forces. He noticed a youth, Vikas Kumar, selected under the scheme and called him to the dais.

Vikas got on the dais and touched Rahul’s feet after which the Congress MP hugged him and introduced him to the audience. “What do you feel about the Agnipath scheme?” Rahul asked Vikas, to which he replied: “I did not like it even a bit.”

Looking at the crowd, Rahul said: “He (Vikas) did not like the scheme because Modi has made two types of martyrs. Vikas is being asked to go to the border without training, pension and canteen facilities. If you lay down your life, the government will not stand with you and you will not get the status of a martyr because you are an Agniveer, not a normal soldier.

“This is an insult not only for the army but also for every patriot. We will not accept this. This scheme will be in the dustbin as soon as the INDIA bloc government comes to power,” Rahul said.

At Paliganj, Rahul asked the crowd to ensure Misa’s victory and called RJD leader Tejashwi a “babbar sher” (Barbary lion), as he was “spearheading” the Opposition against the ruling NDA.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has different approaches for the rich and the poor. He has waived liabilities worth ₹16 lakh crore of the rich industrialists, including Adani. He (Modi) has not done anything for the poor in the last 10 years but has made 22 billionaires. He has destroyed small businessmen and just worked for the billionaires,” Rahul said.

Drawing the crowd’s attention towards the Congress’s manifesto, Rahul said the party would “make crores of lakhpatis in the country by giving ₹1 lakh to poor women every year”.

“There is rampant unemployment in the country and the youths will not forgive Modi for bringing this upon them. He has made them labourers in the army,” Rahul said.

At the rally in Bakhtiyarpur, Rahul said a storm of the INDIA bloc was on its way in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and Modi would not become the PM again.

Taking digs at Modi for saying that the parmaatma (God) had asked him to work for the people, Rahul said the PM had coined this to save himself from the Enforcement Directorate after the elections.