Makar Sankranti: UP Cong leaders to take dip in Saryu, pay obeisance at temples in Ayodhya

Lucknow: Congress leaders and workers, including its Uttar Pradesh chief Ajay Rai, left for Ayodhya on Monday to take a holy dip in the Saryu river and pay obeisance at temples there.

They are scheduled to reach Ayodhya by 2 pm, the party's state unit spokesperson, Uma Shankar Pandey, said.

While the Congress top brass has declined the invitation to the January 22 consecration ceremony at the Ram temple in Ayodhya, the party's Uttar Pradesh unit has stuck to its plan to go ahead with its programme to visit the city on 'Makar Sankranti'.

Others who are on their way to Ayodhya include Congress Legislature Party leader Aradhana Mishra and Congress national secretary in-charge Dheeraj Gurjar, Pandey said.

Senior leaders Deepender Singh Hooda and Avinash Pande will come to Ayodhya by flight, Pandey said.

After taking a dip in the Saryu river, they will pay obeisance at the Hanuman Garhi temple and to Ram Lalla, the Congress said in a press release.

Last week, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party president Sonia Gandhi and leader of the party in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury had turned down the invitation to attend the consecration ceremony.

The Congress leadership 'respectfully declined' the invitation to attend the ceremony, while accusing the BJP of making it into a 'political project' for electoral gains and asserting that religion is a 'personal matter'.

Rai had said that he along with other Congress leaders will go ahead with their programme of visiting the temple town on 'Makar Sankranti'.