Anubhi Saxena
Lucknow: After Ganga Yatra from Prayagraj to Varanasi, Priyanka Gandhi is set to launch a rail yatra to the temple town Ayodhya on March 27.
Priyanka will be the first in the Gandhi family to drive in the temple town. Her father Rajiv Gandhi launched his 1989 Lok Sabha campaign from neighbouring Faizabad. This would be Priyanka’s first visit to Ayodhya after she has become the party general secretary in-charge of east UP.
The visit comes days after she concluded a three day boat ride on the River Ganga from Allahabad to Varanasi. Priyanka will board the Kaifiyat Express from Delhi and reach Faizabad station. Reports say that Priyanka will hold a roadshow in Ayodhya and will offer prayers at the Hanuman Garhi temple. The roadshow will cover a distance of 50 km and will terminate at Kumarganj where she will meet locals and other party workers. The three-day trip will come to an end at Unnao on 29 March.
For the duration, the Mahant of Hanumangarhi, Acharya Satyendra Das has questioned Priyanka’s visit and asked if the visit was being done for political gains. He had also demanded that Priyanka should visit to Ram Lalla.
“Congress is the root cause of Ayodhya dispute. The party has always played politics over the issue. Priyanka should also pay visit to Ram Lalla and Lord Hanuman, else her visit will be taken as a political move. Priyanka should also announce that if they come to power then a grand Ram Temple will be constructed,” said Acharya Satyendra Das.
She is expected to address two public meetings, one at Faizabad city and other at Nauvva Kuan in rural Faizabad, where she will visit school children. Priyanka will cover both urban area and rural area. During her second leg of campaigning Priyanka is likely to interact with students both boys and girls in a degree college.
After her road show in Ayodhya, in the coming two days on March 28 and 29, Priyanka will lead the march to Amethi and Rae Bareli constituencies of her brother Rahul and mother Sonia.
UP Cabinet Minister on Monday calls the Congress general secretary as a “migratory Siberian bird“, and designate her campaign for the approaching Lok Sabha polls a “picnic“.
Priyanka’s visit to Ayodhya is significant as she is planning to take on BJP from their strongholds. Also the party thinks it has a fair chance of winning Faizabad Lok Sabha seat, where former state Congress president Nirmal Khatri is in fray.
