Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has issued a stern warning to rebels. Addressing party workers in Mumbai on Friday, Gandhi said he would not hesitate in expelling party leaders who engineered defeats of party's official candidates.

Addressing the 500-strong gathering, Gandhi said, "Only the Congress has Hindustan's DNA".

But even before the day-long event started, traffic disruption due to Gandhi's cavalcade set micro-blogging site Twitter abuzz.

Friday's event also turned out to be a sparring match between supporters of Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan and state party affairs in-charge Mohan Prakash.