 "Rahul Gandhi at Kedarnath Temple")
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi visited the Kedarnath temple in Uttarakhand on Sunday. After landing at the Jolly Grant Airport in Dehradun, Gandhi reached there in a private helicopter and was welcomed by the temple's priests and Congress workers.
"Today, I visited Kedarnath Dham in Uttarakhand and had a darshan and worshipped. Har Har Mahadev," Gandhi said in a post on Facebook, as he shared his pictures at the Kedarnath temple. The Congress party, in a post on social media platform X, posted, "Today @RahulGandhi ji had darshan of Baba Kedar at Baba Kedarnath Dham in Uttarakhand and prayed for the happiness and peace of the country."
At Kedarnath, Gandhi attended the aarti ceremony and served tea to the devotees. The Kedarnath temple, situated at an altitude of 3,584 metres above sea level in Uttarakhand, is part of the Char Dhams and Panch Kedar in Uttarakhand and one of the 12 Jyotirlingas of Lord Shiva in India.
This comes at a time when Gandhi is campaigning for the five assembly elections and addressed a poll rally in Chhattisgarh. He also visited the Golden Temple in Amritsar earlier.
Rahul Gandhi campaigns in Chhattisgarh
On Saturday, Gandhi visited Chhattisgarh for an election rally. He targeted the BJP-led government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Congress demand for a caste census in the country. He said more benefits would be given to farmers in Chhattisgarh if the party came back to power in the state.
The Congress leader alleged that the BJP government had not fulfilled its promises and accused it of working in the interest of industrialists. He alleged that the BJP uses "vanvasi" instead of "adivasi" for the tribal population living in forested areas.
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"'Adivasi' is a revolutionary word. 'Adivasi' means the first owner of the country. BJP does not use this word because they know that if they use this word they will have to return the jungle, water and land to you," he said.
"They don't want to believe this and have come up with a new word 'Vanvasi'- those who live in the jungle. This word is an insult to the 'Adivasi'. The Congress party will never accept this word," he added.
He said the Congress government in Chhattisgarh has provided Rs 23 crore to farmers under the Kisan Nyay Yojana. "We are providing labourers with Rs 7000 which will increase to Rs 10,000 after the polls. We give money to farmers and labourers," he said.
Gandhi also posted a video of an interaction with paddy farmers and agricultural labourers in a village in Chhattisgarh. Gandhi said his party guarantees that there will be a loan waiver for farmers in Chhattisgarh again, 20 quintals of paddy per acre will be procured, and salaries of agricultural labourers will increase from Rs 7,000 to Rs 10,000 per year if it returns to power in the state.
Last month, he had helped some cultivators at the village near Raipur in harvesting paddy and said the pro-farmer "model" of his party's government in Chhattisgarh will be replicated across India. Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and Deputy CM T S Singh Deo had accompanied Gandhi.
Posting the video of his interaction with the farmers on his YouTube page, Gandhi said, "A few days ago, I got a chance to go to Kathiya village in Chhattisgarh and interact with the farmers and help them in the fields - tried my hand at harvesting paddy."
Gandhi's visit to Telangana and Amritsar
Gandhi also visited the Medigadda barrage of Kaleswaram project in Telangana, touted as the world's largest multi-stage lift irrigation project, where cracks have developed in the pillars of the barrage.
"Kaleshwaram Project = KCR Family ATM. I visited the Medigadda barrage, which is a part of the corruption-ridden Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme in Telangana," the MP said on "X" (formerly Twitter).
Gandhi had also paid a two-day visit to the Golden Temple earlier this month and offered "seva" (voluntary service) by peeling vegetables at the "langar" (community kitchen), serving food to devotees and washing dishes.
"No matter what they do and they can keep going, their force does nothing to the truth," he said.
Electioneering has picked up momentum in five poll-bound states, with polling on November 7 in Chhattisgarh and Mizoram. Rajasthan will go to the polls on November 25, and Madhya Pradesh will hold elections on November 17. Telangana will hold polls on November 30.
(With agency inputs)
