Rahul to start Gujarat visit by offering prayers at Dwarkadhish Temple

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will offer prayers at Dwarkadhish Temple in Dwarka on Saturday and then attend a meeting of party workers in Gujarat, which heads for Assembly polls later in the year.

The 'chintan shibir' (meet to deliberate on issues) started in Dwarka, some 490 kilometres from here, on Friday, a communication from the Congress party said.

"Rahul Gandhi will start his Dwarka visit by bowing down at Dwarkadhish temple on Saturday. Later he would attend Congress workers' three-day chintan shibir," it said.

The visit is being seen as the start of the Congress' election campaign for the 2022 Assembly polls in a state that for long has been a BJP fortress, with the saffron party being in power since 1995.

During the 2017 polls too, Gandhi had visited temples and had called himself a "janeuvdhari Brahmin", with many claiming he had employed the "soft Hindutva" card to beat the BJP.

As per the Congress' release, the three-day meet to train party workers in Dwarka started in the presence of state in charge and Rajasthan minister Raghu Sharma as well as Gujarat unit chief Jagdish Thakore, with leaders praying at the Dwarkadhish Temple during the day.

The Congress had managed to win 77 seats in the 2017 Assembly polls, while the BJP got 99, just seven seats more than the halfway mark of 92.