Congress workers on Friday staged a protest outside BJP's Delhi unit office against the party for portraying Rahul Gandhi as a "new age Ravan" in a social media poster.

The protesters burnt effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and raised slogans against him.

The protest was led by Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) president Arvinder Singh Lovely amid heavy police barricading.

"We want to know from the BJP, what is their issue with Rahul Gandhi? If Rahul ji is meeting poor farmers, coolies, kids, and paying homage at the Swarn Mandir, does that bother BJP? We want to tell the BJP that the politics they play in the name of Lord Ram, they will reap the results in the next elections," Lovely told PTI.

A photograph of Gandhi morphed as Ravan in a poster put out from Bhartiya Janta Party's official handle on X stirred the controversy on Thursday.

"Bharat khatre mein hain," the poster read along with a caption "The new age Ravan is here. He is Evil. Anti Dharma. Anti Ram. His aim is to destroy Bharat."

Earlier on October 4, the Congress had posted Prime Minister Modi's and Union Home Minister Amit Shah's poster calling the PM "Jumla boy" with the caption "Going to hit the election rally soon". Several senior Congress leaders have condemned BJP's post and called it an attempt by the ruling party at the Centre to "incite violence" against Gandhi.

"What is the real intent of an atrocious graphic portraying Rahul Gandhi as Ravan by the BJP's official handle? It is clearly intended to incite and provoke violence against a Congress MP and a former President of the party, whose father and grandmother were assassinated by forces that want to divide India," Congress general secretary in charge of communications, Jairam Ramesh wrote in a post on X on Thursday.