Difficult to attend Ram temple consecration: Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi waves at supporters during the ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ in Manipur. Pic/PTI

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said it is difficult for his party's leaders to attend the January 22 Ram temple consecration ceremony as the BJP and the RSS have turned it into a "political event" centred around Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

His remarks at a press conference during the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra here comes days after the Congress top brass declined the invitation to the event at the Ram temple in Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh. "The Ram temple consecration ceremony is a political event centred around the prime minister. The BJP and the RSS are giving an election flavour to it and that is why it is difficult for us to attend," Gandhi said.

"It is difficult for us to attend the Ram temple consecration ceremony when our principal opponents the BJP and the RSS have captured the function and turned it into election event," he said. On the opposition INDIA bloc, the Congress leader said the alliance will defeat the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. The seat sharing discussions among INDIA bloc partners are being carried out amicably, he said.

"I am confident that small problems within the INDIA bloc will be resolved and we will together defeat the BJP. The issue of seat sharing is being taken up with INDIA bloc allies. Talks are going quite well," Gandhi said. He asserted that the opposition alliance will win the Lok Sabha poll together.

Nagaland people should feel equal: Rahul Gandhi

Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said people of Nagaland should feel at par with others in the country despite hailing from a small state. Addressing a rally in Nagaland's capital Kohima, as part of his ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra', he said the idea of the march is to give "justice to the people" and to "make politics, society and the economic structure more equal and accessible to everyone". Gandhi visited Kohima War Cemetery and paid homage to who made supreme sacrifice in the line of duty during World War II.

Sharmila appointed new Congress president of Andhra

The Congress on Tuesday appointed Y S Sharmila, the daughter of former chief minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy, as the new president of the Andhra Pradesh state unit. Sharmila, the sister of Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, had joined the Congress on January 4 in Delhi in the presence of Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi. "Congress president has appointed Y S Sharmila Reddy as the president of the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee with immedi-ate effect," an official announcement by the party said. "Congress president has also appointed Shri Gidugu Rudra Raju, the outgoing PCC president as special invitee to the Congress Working Committee. The party appreciates the contributions of Gidugu Rudra Raju, in his role as PCC president," the Congress said.

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