SRINAGAR: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi paid obeisance at the Kheer Bhawani temple in Ganderbal before the long cavalcade drove to Dargah Hazratbal shrine in city outskirts. Both the places are on the same route.
Flanked by the party’s general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal, he spent some time paying his respects at the temple, most revered by the Kashmiri Pandits. This was termed by the party leaders as his private visit. As the Congress leaders were busy in the temple, party leaders and the host Congress unit waited outside.
Gandhi later drove to the Dargah Hazratbal shrine where he paid his respects and was accompanied by the entire Congress leadership of Kashmir.
Gandhi who flew to Srinagar to attended the wedding of Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee president Ghulam Ahmad Mir’s son also had interactions with some of the party leaders.
He will be formally inaugurating the Congress Bhawan at the fashionable Moulana Azad Road before taking off in the afternoon. At the office, he is expected to make some comments to the party leaders.
The security grid is on tenterhooks to ensure an incident-free visit. Though the movement of the traffic has not been stopped, there is a thick blanket of security deployments all along the route that the Congress leader took. Gandhi was received by all the senior party leaders at the Srinagar airport on Monday.
