New Delhi:
Rahul Gandhi's month-long Mahayatra in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh shall be briefly halted for two days on September 12 and 13 on account of the upcoming Eid festival. Gandhi shall recommence his yatra from September 14.
The "Kisan Mahayatra" undertaken by Gandhi aims to highlight the plight of farmers in Uttar Pradesh. On the fourth day of the yatra that kicked off from Deoria in eastern UP on September 6, the Congress Vice President reached Faizabad.
"My yatra from Deoria to Delhi today in Faizabad and Ambedkar Nagar. In view of Eid, we will halt on September 12 and 13. It will commence from September 14 thereafter," he tweeted. He took out a road show in Faizabad and also got a warm reception from children of Faizabad Public School at Gandhi Park this morning before the beginning of the road show.
He also garlanded the statues of Mahatma Gandhi, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Acharya Narendra Dev in Faizabad. He had uploaded pictures of his road show and other events, but not of his Ayodhya visit, on social networking site Twitter.
Gandhi earlier in the day visited Ayodhya, where he offered prayers at the Hanuman Garhi Temple. It marked the first ever visit by a member of the Nehru-Gandhi family since the demolition of the disputed structure in 1992. The Congress Vice President also met Mahant Gyan Das at the temple.
Rahul's yatra becomes the first member of the Gandhi family to visit Ayodhya since the demolition of the Babri Masjid 24 years ago, in December 1992. Rahul's visit to Hanuman Garhi, which is about a kilometer away from the Ram Temple at the disputed Ramjanmbhoomi-Babri Masjid site has created ripples around the political circles. Rahul prefered to stay away from the site of 'shilanyas', the foundation stone that had been laid there in 1989 for the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
