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    Madhya Pradesh election 2018: In Rahul Gandhi’s temple run, no place for Digvijaya Singh

    Synopsis

    The Congress president has already been to three temples – the Kamtanath temple in Chitrakoot last month and the Pitambara Peeth in Datia and Ankaleshwar temple in Gwalior on Monday.

    Rahul-Gandhi-ptrPTI
    Gandhi will visit all major temples in Madhya Pradesh as part of his election campaign.
    NEW DELHI: Congress president Rahul Gandhi will visit all major temples in Madhya Pradesh as part of his election campaign as the party believes more than half-dozen prominent temples have influence over voters in nearly half the seats in the state.

    State party president Kamal Nath and the campaign committee chief Jyotiraditya Scindia are accompanying Gandhi on all these temple visits. Former Congress chief minister Digvijaya Singh, now the party’s coordination committee chief, who has raised issues such as Hindu terrorism, has however been kept out of such engagements of Gandhi.

    The Congress president has already been to three such temples – the Kamtanath temple in Chitrakoot last month and the Pitambara Peeth in Datia and Ankaleshwar temple in Gwalior on Monday. He also did a Narmada Aarti at Gwari Ghat in Jabalpur earlier this month. Gandhi’s next stops later this month, during his visit to the all-important Malwa region, are expected to be the two jyotirlingas in the state – the Mahakaleshwar temple in Ujjain and Omkareshwar Peeth in the Omkareshwar district. A party functionary said a plan was also in the works for Gandhi to visit the Ram Raja Temple and Laxmi Narayan Temple in Orchha in Niwari district at a later date.

    “Rahul Gandhi also went to Moti Masjid and a gurudwara in Gwalior during his present trip,” a Congress functionary said, stressing on the “secular nature” of his trips. Gandhi also put out a picture on Instagram of his recent visits to Ankaleshwar temple, Moti Masjid and a gurudwara with the message, “The idea of India begins with acceptance that India thrives on diversity. The idea of India is in all of us. The idea that we are one people and will always be.”

    Gandhi shared a picture in which he is seen wearing a skull cap at the Moti Masjid. The Congress functionary also said it was part of the Gandhi family’s tradition to visit the temples in Madhya Pradesh. “Indira Gandhi had visited the Pitambara Peeth in Datia thrice in her life and Rajiv Gandhi had visited once,” the leader said.


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