Rahul Gandhi began his 2-day trip to Gujarat with a visit to the Sabarmati Ashram
Rahul Gandhi is spending two days in
Narendra Modi's Gujarat; he began his tour with a visit to Mahatma Gandhi's Sabarmati Ashram, just 25 km from the Chief Minister's residence in Gandhinagar.
"It's always an honour for me to come to the ashram. I am a follower of Gandhi and his ideas. Thank you," Mr Gandhi wrote in the visitors' book at the ashram.
The Congress vice-president will also travel to Rajkot, where he will meet party leaders from different parts of Gujarat. Rajkot is the former assembly constituency of Mr Modi, and is still considered a stronghold of the BJP's prime ministerial candidate.
Many see the 2014 general elections due by May as a direct contest between Mr Modi and Rahul Gandhi.
While Mr Gandhi has not officially been projected as his party's presumptive PM, senior Congress leaders have often said there is no ambiguity in the party on the fact that the 43-year-old will lead it in the forthcoming elections.
Mr Gandhi, who is focused on strengthening the Congress' cadres at the grassroots in different states, has his work cut out in Gujarat, where his party's influence has been steadily dwindling in the face of Mr Modi's mammoth gains in three successive assembly elections.
In their campaigns in states bound for elections this year, Mr Modi and Mr Gandhi have repeatedly targeted each other in their speeches.