Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi will be visiting Bihar for the first time on Saturday after resigning as the party chief.

To pressurise Rahul Gandhi for withdrawing his resignation, Congress workers in the state have put up posters in Patna saying that they will commit suicide if the party chief doesn't comply.

A threat was issued in a poster that said if Rahul Gandhi does not take back his resignation, 12 Congress would self-immolate on July 11 in Patna.

Rahul Gandhi is visiting the state to appear before a Patna court in connection with a defamation suit filed against him by Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi.

The senior BJP leader had filed the case before the Chief Judicial Magistrate's court in Patna in April, taking exception to a snide remark made by Rahul Gandhi at an election rally in Karnataka's Kolar district that all thieves had the surname Modi -- referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, bank-fraud accused Nirav Modi and former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi.

I will appear in person at the Civil Court in Patna today at 2 PM, in yet another case filed against me by my political opponents in the RSS/ BJP to harass & intimidate me.



Satyameva Jayate Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) July 6, 2019

The case was referred by CJM Shashikant Roy to ACJM Kumar Gunjan.

Rahul Gandhi, who resigned as the Congress chief earlier this week taking moral responsibility for his party's Lok Sabha election debacle, had last visited the Bihar capital in May, when he held a roadshow for actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha, who failed to retain the Patna Sahib seat on a Congress ticket in the parliamentary polls held in April-May.

There were reports in a section of the media that Gandhi might also visit Muzaffarpur, about 60 km from Patna, which has been the worst affected by a state-wide outbreak of brain fever, which has claimed more than 150 lives.

However, Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) working president Kaukab Qadri said that the full itinerary of the former party chief's visit was not made available here yet, "though we see little possibility of Gandhi visiting Muzaffarpur since had it been on the cards, advice would have been given to the state unit for making the necessary arrangements".

(With inputs from PTI)