2017 Punjab polls: Rahul Gandhi meets Radha Soami sect head at Beas

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday met Radha Soami sect chief Gurinder Singh Dhillon at his residence at Beas, a move which has evoked interest as the party prepares to take on Punjab's ruling SAD-BJP combine in the 2017 assembly poll.

Rahul spent nearly two hours with Dhillon. During his visit to Beas, no party leader accompanied Rahul. SPG personnel accompanying the leader were also asked to stay out of the dera premises, party sources said. Rahul had come to Amritsar on Friday to see a documentary on drug addicts, 'Faded Glory'. He reached Beas, nearly 45 kms from here, last evening and spent the night there.

The Congress vice president met Dhillon in the morning and thereafter he attended a one-hour 'satsang' (religious discourse). Later, he went to the residence of Dhillon and held discussion on various issues over breakfast.

The meeting assumes significance in view of the assembly poll in Punjab where Congress is eyeing to wrest power from the SAD-BJP combine after 10 years. In the afternoon, Rahul returned to Amritsar by road from where he took a flight to Delhi.

In the past, Rahul's mother and Congress President Sonia Gandhi had visited the dera. Senior BJP leader L K Advani had also visited Beas in 2014 and attended the morning discourse of Sect head Gurinder Singh Dhillon.

Dera Radha Soami, also known as Dera Baba Jaimal Singh, has huge following across the country and abroad.