Rahul to embark on Kailash Mansarovar yatra

Congress president Rahul Gandhi is likely to embark on Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage over the weekend, a trek he had vowed to undertake after the mid-air scare over Hubbali in April during the Karnataka Assembly elections campaign.

A self-professed devotee of Lord Shiva, Rahul had announced his desire to undertake the arduous pilgrimage to Kailash Mansarovar at the Jan Aakrosh rally in April at the Ramlila Maidan.

However, Rahul's visit was soon embroiled in a controversy with the ministry of external affairs claiming that the Congress president had not made any application for pilgrimage that is organised by the government in coordination with China.

The buzz in Congress circles is that Rahul would be away for about a fortnight and was expected to trek through the mountains instead of taking the easy route via Nepal.

“A few days ago, we were on our way to Karnataka on an aircraft. And the aircraft suddenly came down by 8,000 feet. I thought gaadi gayi (that it was all over). At that moment, it struck my mind that I have to go to Kailash Mansarovar,” Rahul had said at the rally here on April 29, three days after the mid-air scare.

Keen to shrug off the “pro-minority” tag earned by the Congress, Rahul has been visiting temples while on election campaigns in Gujarat and Karnataka. He had also undertaken a trek to the Kedarnath temple in 2015 when it was re-opened after a two-year restoration work.

The temple was damaged in the flash floods that hit the region in 2013.