New Delhi, December 26
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday visited eight “samadhis” in Delhi — two more than the six announced by his party — and paid homage to the departed leaders as part of his Bharat Jodo Yatra.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi pays tribute to former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee at Sadaiv Atal in New Delhi on Monday. Mukesh Aggarwal
While five samadhis visited by him are dedicated to Congress leaders, including three members of his immediate family, the remaining three memorials are dedicated to leaders who were political opponents of the Congress.
The Congress sprung a surprise on Saturday when it announced that Rahul Gandhi, who earlier in the day entered Delhi from Haryana leading the Bharat Jodo Yatra foot march that started from Kanyakumari on September 7, would visit the memorial dedicated to BJP leader and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee too, besides those of Gandhi, Nehru, Indira, Rajiv and Lal Bahadur Shastri, and pay homage.
This morning Rahul squeezed in two more memorials as he did a quick round of Delhi’s memorial circuit. The new additions in his itinerary were memorials dedicated to former PM Chaudhary Charan Singh and former Defence Minister Jagjivan Ram.
Congress leader Supriya Srinate, when asked why Rahul paid tributes to Vajpayee, whose party represents the very ideology that is being challenged by Rahul through the yatra, said when Vajpayee was faced with the challenge of choosing between BJP ideology and secular goals of the Constitution, he had chosen the latter.
Vajpayee had urged Narendra Modi, then CM of Gujarat, to follow “raj dharma” when communal riots had broken out in Gujarat, Srinate told at a press conference at the AICC headquarters here.
Meanwhile, Amit Malviya, BJP’s IT chief, said, “Rahul Gandhi visiting samadhis of former PMs is for the shutterbugs, chattering elites and part of his makeover exercise.”
