Kurukshetra (Haryana), April 10 (IANS) Millionaire industrialist and Congress MP Naveen Jindal Friday become the latest victim of a shoe attack when a drunk retired school teacher hurled a footwear at him inside the Congress party office in this Haryana town. Jindal said he had ‘forgiven’ the attacker.

‘Personally, I have forgiven that man but I think there should be some action against such people,’ Jindal told the media in state capital Chandigarh, 80 km from here.

The shoe did not hit Jindal. However, the Haryana Police took the offender, Raj Pal, into custody.

The incident took place at the Congress office here during a meeting of party leaders.

Police officials said the man had been medically examined and was found to be in an inebriated state when he hurled his shoe at Jindal. The provocation behind the incident was not yet clear.

Jindal, who represents the Kurukshetra constituency in the Lok Sabha, is seeking re-election from the same constituency.

Jindal wondered how did the man gain entry into the party office. ‘I am sure that he was not a Congress party worker and I do not know how he managed to gain entry inside the premises. He was in an inebriated condition and was continuously murmuring something,’ Jindal said.

Earlier, Congress leaders wanted to complain to the Election Commission against the opposition parties over the incident. But Jindal said he was not complaining, while suggesting that opposition leaders could be behind it.

Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and union Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office Prithviraj Chavan, who is the Congress in-charge for Haryana, condemned the show-throwing.

‘Such incidents are not at all good for the health of democracy and we condemn such acts. There should be a legal course of action against the people doing this,’ Hooda said.

The opposition Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) too condemned the incident but blamed the Congress leaders for such incidents.

‘These incidents are a manifestation of the wrong policies of the Congress leadership. This also reflects on the infighting within the Congress. The person who hurled the shoe belongs to a Congress family,’ a spokesman of the INLD said.

The incident comes four days after journalist Jarnail Singh tossed his shoe at Home Minister P. Chidambaram during a press conference at the Congress headquarters in New Delhi to protest the candidatures of Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar for the Lok Sabha polls. Tytler and Kumar are accused of involvement in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Both were dropped as party candidates for the Lok Sabha polls from Delhi.