89 years after Gandhiji, Rahul visits Akola, says it's a 'happy coincidence'

Akola, Nov 17:  Exactly 89 years after Mahatma Gandhi visited a village in Maharashtra's Akola in 1933, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi reached the district on the same day - today, as part of the Bharat Jodo Yatra - and the latter termed it as a 'happy coincidence', here on Thursday.

When asked by mediapersons whether the visit today (November 17), was planned or otherwise, Gandhi smiled and said it was sheer chance that brought him there on the same day as Gandhiji after 89 years.

"No, it was nothing planned, it's a coincidence and I am happy... Gandhiji was a great figure who gave direction to the whole country, but I am a nobody... Please don't resort to any comparisons, it would be very wrong," Gandhi appealed.

The Congress leader was addressing a press conference - his sixth during the Bharat Jodo Yatra so far - here in the afternoon and took a wide variety of questions from the large contingent of regional and national media.