No temple run this time for Rahul

Not a single place of religious worship has been listed for Congress president Rahul Gandhi to visit during his 3-day tour of Belagavi and other northern districts starting February 24.

The second leg of Rahul's tour - the Janaarshivada Yatra - will cover Belagavi, Vijayapura, Bagalkot and Dharwad districts.

The absence of temples or dargahs in Rahul's itinerary is conspicuous, especially after he visited at least six places of religious worship during his 4-day tour of Hyderabad-Karnataka earlier this month. Labelled as soft Hindutva, the 'temple run' has come to be identified as the Congress's way of countering the BJP's hardline Hindutva ideology.

Rahul has been accused of being "an election Hindu" and his visits to temples  were dubbed as political stunting.

That he is not scheduled to visit any place of religious worship comes also in the backdrop of a controversy: the BJP accused Rahul of consuming chicken prior to his visit to the Kanakachala Lakshmi Narasimha temple in Kanakagiri in Koppal.  

However, the possibility of Rahul making unscheduled visits to temples en route his 3-day tour cannot be ruled out.  

On February 24, Rahul will land at the Belagavi airport and head for a public meeting at Karimasuthi in Chikkodi, followed by a Sthree Shakti rally at Tikota, receptions in Vijayapura and meetings with senior leaders and party functionaries. On February 25, Rahul will flag off the Vrukshathon 2018 half marathon and then participate in a celebration of a barrage being filled with water at Bagalkot. He will attend corner/public meetings at Mulawad, Bilgi and Mudhol. He will conclude his tour on February 26 with a series of meetings with party leaders, corner meetings at Ramdurg and Saundatti, a public meeting at Nehru Maidan in Hubballi before departing to Delhi from the Hubballi airport.

Tickets

The party will receive, in a couple of days, a list of names of potential ticket aspirants for each Assembly constituency from its observers. "Once we get the complete list, a meeting of the selection committee will be convened where it will be discussed. Then, the names will be sent to the central screening committee," Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) G Parameshwara told reporters recently.