A retired school teacher on Friday hurled a shoe at Congress MP Naveen Jindal here in what appears to be a fast-catching trend inspired by the episodes involving George Bush and later home minister P Chidambaram.

Ram Kumar, however, missed his target during an election rally in Kurukshetra constituency from where Jindal, an industrialist, is contesting the Lok Sabha polls.

While throwing the shoe at Jindal, the retired teacher said he is doing so in protest of the policies of the Congress.

Police immediately took Kumar in custody and whisked him away from the rally.
     
Meanwhile, Jindal alleged that Kumar was under the influence of liquor.
     
Apparently taking cue from the episode involving the US president George Bush in Baghdad last year, a Sikh journalist had on Tuesday hurled a shoe at Chidambaram at a press conference in Delhi protesting against the CBI clean chit to Congress candidate Jagdish Tytler in an anti-Sikh riots case.

Two days after the Sikh journalist incident, a Delhi college lecturer had attempted to target a colleague with his shoe at a staff council meeting but it was thwarted by other teachers.