The Congress vice-president has visited around a dozen temples in the poll-bound state so far, three of them on Monday including one in Modi's home turf Mehsana
The temple trips of Rahul Gandhi during election campaign in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home turf Gujarat has angered the BJP and for obvious reasons, but Congress is keen to continue with the strategy.
The Congress vice-president has visited around a dozen temples in the poll-bound state so far, three of them on Monday including one in Modi's home turf Mehsana.
Addressing a news conference, Gandhi later called himself 'Shiva Ka Bhakt', who will believes in truth, soon after BJP general secretary in-charge for Gujarat Bhupendra Yadav said that visiting temples should come to a person naturally and "not only during election".
Reacting to Bhupendra, Congress spokesperson Maneesh Tewari said, "Any religion or faith is not exclusive asset of someone (koi bhi aastha ya dharm kisi ki bapouti nahin hai ki aap logo se sawal karo ki aap is mandir me jaate hain, usme kyon nahin."
The party, which has so far taken extra care to ensure that election discourse in Gujarat does not take a Hindu-Muslim twist with its no leader even mentioning the post-Godhra riots this time, believes that Gandhi's repeated visits to temples, despite criticism from the other side, will help it wean away the liberal Hindus and undo the criticism that it only pandered to Muslim sentiments.
The Congress believes that it will help the party counter the hardline Hindutva, riding on which according it, the BJP has been in power for two decades in Gujarat.
And the temple visits have so assiduously been planned that even the deities' influence among local population communities have been taken care of.
In the first month of November, Gandhi began his three-day election tour of North Gujarat with a visit to Akshardham temple, which belongs to the Swaminaryan Act and has a huge folllowing among Patels, a community, Congress has aggressively targeted in this assembly polls. Gandhi began his three-day tour covering six districts only after the darshan in the temple.
Each time, Gandhi visited the temple, photos of Gandhi offering prayers before deities and seeking blessings were instantly sent out by the party's communication department and Rahul Gandhi's own office.
Gandhi had kicked off his election tour in the state after offering prayers at the Dwarkadhish temple in last week of September. He had then also trekked up the famous Chotila temple in Surendranagar district.
Gandhi had also attended a garba event organised by MLA Indranil Rajyaguru in Rajkot and performed 'aarti' in front of the idol of goddess Durga.
He then had a darshan at Khodal Dham temple in Kagvad village, where he offered prayers to Khodiyar Mata, the reigning deity of the Leuva Patel community. Gandhi had then also paid a visit to a temple dedicated to Dasi Jeevan, revered by Dalits and Buddhists.
On Monday, Gandhi visited three important local temples Vir Meghmaya Temple and Shankeshwar Jain Temple in Patan Bahucharaji Temple in Mehsana.
A day before on November 12, he visited Wadinath Temple, Thara, besides Sada Ram Bapu Ashram at Totana in Banaskantha district. On November 11, whe went to the famous Ambaji Temple in Banaskantha in North Gujarat.
On November 2, the Congress Vice President visited Unai Mata Temple in Navsari district. Another temple that he visted was Jalaram temple.
His Navsarjan Janadesh Mahasammelan public meeting on October 23 was organised at Ramkatha ground.
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