NEW DELHI: Rahul Gandhi trekked the arduous pilgrim's route to the holiest of Hindu shrines, became the first person to enter Kedarnath temple after the portals opened for this season and then emerged with vermillion smeared on his forehead.

Minutes later, Rahul told reporters, "I went to the temple but did not ask anything. That is my habit, I don't ask. But inside, I experienced some fire-like energy."

Suffused with symbolism, Rahul's Kedarnath yatra is being seen as his "Hindu moment", like Indira Gandhi visited temples and conspicuously wore a 'rudraksh' all the time and Sonia Gandhi dipped her feet in the Holy Ganges at the 2000 Mahakumbh. "Soft hindutva" is back in currency in Congress chatter.

For the centrist outfit, claims on religious front are officially taboo but identifying with different denominations is part of history, going as far back as Madan Mohan Malviya who presided over Congress as well as Hindu Mahasabha even as the party wore secularism on its sleeves, a la Gandhi and Nehru.

There were occasions when balancing was a compulsion, like the unlocking of Ayodhya site was aimed to pander to resentful Hindus after then PM Rajiv Gandhi's decision on undo the Supreme Court order in Shah Bano case.

To observers, Rahul's visit to Kedarnath is different from anything in the Congress's past, coming as it does on his return from a long sabbatical followed by an intensive re-engagement with politics, and before his taking over of the party reins. Above all, it comes in the wake of post-defeat laments among Congress veterans that the party was paying for its excessive minority bias.

"The visit is a reflection of Rahul Gandhi's personal faith. Rahul went for reasons to do with his own personal belief," family confidant and nine-term MP Kamal Nath said.

If Rahul is stressing his Hindu identity, it is seen as a proactive step, qualitatively different from the balancing employed routinely with a 'chadar' going to Ajmer Sharif and wishes being offered on Diwali and Christmas.

By party accounts, the heir apparent bowed to the entreaties of Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat and state Congress chief Kishore Upadhyay that he play the 'brand ambassador' for the state and the shrine where visitors and pilgrims have dried up after the deadly floods of 2012, costing the state heavily. Rahul mulled the idea, and gave his consent.

For Congressmen, it is more than tourism. Many wondered what if PM Narendra Modi had visited the shrine before Rahul. It would have shut the few available openings the party is looking at to rebound in popular consciousness. Politics is way beyond dry policy issues like land acquisition, they feel.

It is not without significance that Rahul took three young leaders along -- former Union minister Jitin Prasada, Youth Congress chief Amarinder Brar and Suraj Hegde, AICC secretary in-charge of Youth Congress. The youth leaders could be trusted to pass on the lessons learnt to the GenNext cadres.