Making good on his declaration about paying a visit to Mount Kailash, Congress president Rahul Gandhi will embark on the journey this Friday, sources in the party have said. He will go to Kailash Mansarovar through China and is likely to be there for a fortnight.

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Gandhi will fly to Beijing from Delhi on August 31, sources said. From there, he will travel to Lhasa, and then make his way to Saga. He will stay at Saga for a day or two to acclimatise himself before he moves on to the Mansarovar Lake, which is 15,060 ft above the sea level. Gandhi will stay in a base camp in Prayang near the lake, from where he will be taken to the sacred site at Mount Kailash and nearby tourist spots in a helicopter, said sources.

Gandhi will be accompanied by his SPG security detail; party colleagues Kaushal Vidyarthi and Manoj Tyagi are likely to join him. Party sources said that Gandhi, who has a diplomatic passport, will inform the ministry of home affairs in a day or two. As he will move inside Chinese territory, China is likely to attach an officer in his detail. It is unconfirmed if he will meet any political leaders in China.

Gandhi had made the declaration after a troubling episode during the Karnataka elections, when the flight in which he was travelling -- a Dassault Falcon 2000 aircraft (VY-AVH) -- nosedived when he was flying over Hubli. Soon after, he had said, “I was in the aircraft… I thought it was the end. Then, a second thought came to my mind — I want to visit Kailash. I want to go to Kailash Mansarovar. So, I would seek 10-15 days of leave from you after the Karnataka elections so that I can go there and come back.” 

Gandhi’s visit to the sacred shine devoted to Lord Shiva is a reinforcement of his image of a janeu-dhari Hindu. He had gone on a pilgrimage to Kedarnath in 2015, and to Somnath in November last year.