Rahul seeks blessings of all religions in city
After covering 2,229 km of his ‘Deoria-Delhi Kisan Yatra’, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi reached the state capital on Friday and sought blessings of the almighty at a church, a temple, a gurudwara, besides an Islamic institution.
Political pundits termed the visits as an attempt to highlight the party’s secular image.
Gandhi also held a grand road show and addressed roadside meetings while in the city.
He reached Lucknow at around 2:20pm and first visited St Joseph’s Cathedral church, sought blessings of Christ and Mother Mary and lit candles before their statues.
Gandhi, who was accompanied by senior party leaders Raj Babbar, Sheila Dikshit, PL Punia, Pramod Tiwari and others, also met Bishop Gerald J Mathais and inquired about the history of the church.
He then visited one of the oldest Islamic institutions -- Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama. Here he met the institution’s principal and Islamic scholar maulana Rabey Hasani Nadvi and sought his blessings. He also asked the maulana to pray for him. Raidas temple was Gandhi’s next halt at around 4pm where he spent some time with the hostellers there and also heard their grievances.
During his visit, a former student of Lucknow University Manoj Tiwari guided Gandhi around the place. The Congress vice-president announced an aid of around Rs 40 lakh for library maintenance etc on the temple premises. Gandhi then visited a historical gurdwara in Yahiaganj where he asked the religious leaders to pray for him. While on the roadshow in Chowk here, Gandhi targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying the PM was only making false promises to the people. He asked the masses how many of them got benefitted by the schemes launched during Modi government’s regime. On getting a negative reply, he said, “Yuva trast, Modi mast”. He also said that Modi only knows to click selfies. Besides, he also slammed the RSS for “spreading violence”.
He listed the PM’s promises that had not been fulfilled and said he would exert pressure on him to waive off the loans of farmers.
This roadshow marked end of the second leg of Gandhi’s tour. The third leg is likely to begin on Monday.