As BJP sticks to Ram, Cong chooses Shiva for luck in ’19 polls

Cong prez during his pilgrimage was greeted with posters hailing ‘Shiv bhakt Rahul Gandhi’

Lucknow, Sept. 26: Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the key political parties of Uttar Pradesh seem to have chosen their favourite gods. With the BJP apparently sticking to Lord Ram, the Samajwadi Party seems to have chosen Vishnu and the Congress Lord Shiva to spur their poll fortunes, if remarks by their leaders are any indication.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi, fresh from his Mansarovar Yatra, was greeted in his Lok Sabha constituency Amethi this week by hundreds of ‘bol bam’— chanting party activists, all dressed up as “Kanwariyas”, the devotees of Lord Shiva.

The BJP’s UP chief Mahendra Nath Pandey’s reiterated the saffron party’s backing for a Ram temple on the disputed site in Ayodhya. He said the party is trying to ensure that the temple is built in Ayodhya through consensus.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, on the other hand, has pledged to develop a grand city named after Lord Vishnu, complete with a spectacular temple in it on lines of Cambodia’s Angkor Wat, in the state, if voted to power.

Fresh from his recent Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage, the Congress chief Monday was presented a portrait of Lord Shiva by Shiva devotees at Fursatganj.

In a video footage that went viral on social media, Gandhi is seen with his forehead smeared with sandalwood paste with a prominent red ‘tilak’ in the centre. With a scarf around his neck, he is seen taking part in a ‘puja’. He was greeted with posters hailing ‘Shiv bhakt Rahul Gandhi’ on his first visit after undertaking the arduous 12-day pilgrimage in August to Kailash, the abode of Lord Shiva.

The Congress chief had announced his intention to undertake the pilgrimage after a mid-air scare when his plane had plunged hundreds of feet down during one of his flights during the Karnataka poll campaign in April. The pilgrimage was aimed at seeking the blessings of Lord Shiva for the country’s prosperity, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala had said earlier.

In the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the entire spectacle is being seen by some as the Congress bid to woo Hindu voters.

UP BJP chief Mahendra Nath Pandey, meanwhile, said Sunday, “Ram temple is the centre of faith and devotion for us. It should be built as per the law and we are committed to this.”

—PTI