New Delhi,
Canvassing for election-bound Gujarat took a curious turn today with the Congress having to declare party vice-president Rahul Gandhi a Hindu after the BJP repeatedly raised questions about his faith following his Somnath Temple visit.

“Rahul Gandhi is not only a Hindu but a janeyu dhaari Hindu,” Congress’ Randeep Singh Surjewala said.

The storm erupted after reports of names of Gandhi and Congress leader Ahmed Patel being mentioned at Somnath Temple in a register meant for non-Hindus.

The entry was claimed to have been made by Congress media coordinator Manoj Tyagi before the Gandhi scion reached the temple to offer prayers ahead of launching his two-day campaign for his party in the Saurashtra region.

The BJP, which was attacking Rahul’s “soft Hindutva move” by visiting various temples in the state, tried to make an issue of this gaffe, stating that for years it was always projected that Rahul Gandhi was a Hindu, while in fact he was not.

Tyagi issued a statement that he had just entered his name to take media personnel inside the temple and not of Rahul Gandhi or Ahmed Patel. “All these entries must have been entered later,” he claimed. But the BJP refused to relent. Even before it came to light, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addressing an election rally at Prachi, barely 40 km from Somnath, attacked Rahul and the first PM Jawaharlal Nehru over reconstruction of the Somnath Temple after Independence.

Claiming that Nehru was “dead opposed” to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel undertaking the job of reconstructing the famous temple left in ruins by the Muslim invaders, Modi said Nehru had even registered his anger at the then President Rajendra Prasad accepting the Sardar’s invitation to attend the temple’s inauguration after the reconstruction.