Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday visited the Chamundeshwari temple atop Chamundi hills here on the third day of the party’s Bharat Jodo Yatra in Karnataka.
Gandhi was accompanied by supporters and party leaders as he visited the shrine.
Goddess Chamundeshwari is the tutelary deity of the Mysuru royalty and the presiding deity of Mysuru for several centuries.
In a tweet in Hindi after visiting the temple, Gandhi said, "Religious harmony is the foundation of India’s peaceful and progressive future".
Gandhi started the 26th day of his yatra at the crack of dawn, and walked through the streets of the old town which is decked up for the 10-day Dasara celebrations.
People lined up on both sides of the road to welcome Gandhi and chanted slogans hailing the Congress leader, who has so far walked 62 km in Karnataka and 532 km in Tamil Nadu and Kerala legs of the yatra.
In Mysuru, the yatra moved in the form of a procession amid beating of drums and performances by artistes dressed in traditional attire to match the town’s festive spirit.
Gandhi had on Sunday night addressed a public gathering here amid torrential rain, and continued his speech even while he was drenched.
While the former Congress president declared his resolve to unite India through his journey, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh on Monday hailed the Wayanad MP’s rain-soaked moment in Mysuru as "the defining moment of the yatra."
After walking 22 km through Mysuru, Gandhi entered Mandya district in which the historic Srirangapatna town where Tipu Sultan once ruled is located.
Tipu Sultan’s mausoleum is located in this city.
Congress on Monday took a dig at the RSS voicing concern over inequality, unemployment and poverty and credited it to the impact of the Bharat Jodo Yatra spearheaded by Rahul Gandhi.
"Look at the impact of Bharat Jodo Yatra. Even those who break the country and spread poison in the society are raising the issues of poverty, unemployment and inequality," AICC General Secretary Jairam Ramesh said on Twitter.
He was referring to the remarks of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale at a seminar on the need to address the challenges posed by poverty, income inequality and unemployment in the country.
However, Hosabale had blamed the "faulty’ economic policies of the earlier governments for the "ills" in the economy.
Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijaya Singh also said that the impact of the yatra was visible on RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and Hosabale.
"What was the impact of Bharat Jodo Yatra under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi? Ramdev started praising the Nehru-Gandhi family, Mohan Bhagwat started visiting masjid and madrassas.
"’RSS General Secretary Dattatraya Hosabale ji started worrying about the increasing poverty in the country, the growing gap between the rich and the poor and unemployment," Singh said on Twitter.
Last month, Bhagwat, along with senior Sangh functionaries, met Umer Ahmed Ilyasi, the chief of All India Imam Organisation, at a mosque here, taking forward his outreach to the Muslim community.
Singh said not even a month has passed since the launch of the yatra and the BJP and Sangh Parivar have already started worrying about poverty, unemployment and inflation in the country.
"Dattatreya ji, understand this… it is due to the policies of Modi ji the wealth of 100 big families of the country is increasing and the income of the poor and middle-class families of the country is decreasing," Singh said.
Congress functionary Pawan Khera also took a dig at Hosabale’s remarks on poverty, unemployment and inflation at a seminar organised by the Swadeshi Jagran Manch.
"I have heard that the clouds of worry have started gathering over Nagpur. Now even Hosabale ji has started seeing the unemployed," said Khera, the Chairman of AICC’s Media and Publicity Department.
To join the Bharat Jodo Yatra, Congress president Sonia Gandhi arrived Mysuru on Monday afternoon.
She will participate in the Yatra on Thursday morning when it resumes after a two day break.
Sonia Gandhi had not campaigned for the party during elections in the recent past due to health reasons.
It will be after a long time that Gandhi will participate in the party’s public event where a large number of Congress workers are participating.
The Bharat Jodo Yatra entered the 26th day of its almost five month journey from Kanyakumari to Kashmir.