BURHANPUR: Congress Bharat Jodo Yatra led by former party president Rahul Gandhi entered Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday. The yatra today resumed after a two-day break from Boderli village in the Burhanpur district of Madhya Pradesh.
During the break from Bharat Jodo Yatra, Rahul Gandhi addressed two election rallies in poll-bound Gujarat.
A large number of Congress leaders and workers including Madhya Pradesh Congress president Kamal Nath participated in the yatra on the first day in Madhya Pradesh.
Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole handed over the yatra flag to Kamal Nath.
Today is the 77th day of the Congress foot march.
Congress General Secretary Incharge of Communication Jairam Ramesh said that the yatra will go through seven districts of the state over the next 11 days.
“Today is the 77th day of Bharat Jodo Yatra as it resumes from near Burhanpur in southwestern MP. Burhanpur has a long history and became an important place during the Mughal rule, especially during Shah Jahan’s reign. The Yatra will go through 7 districts of MP over the next 11 days,” the Congress leader said in a tweet.
“One-sixth of Burhanpur district’s cultivated area is covered with bananas and it’s also one of the centres of the power loom industry. Rahul Gandhi will be interacting with banana growers and power loom workers today afternoon,” said Ramesh.
The yatra will cover a distance of 370 km before entering Rajasthan.
Addressing the occasion, Rahul Gandhi said, “When we started yatra, then the opposition had said that India is 3600 km long and this cannot be achieved by marching. Now we have entered Madhya Pradesh. We will cover a distance of 370 km. We have started the Bharat Jodo Yatra by taking the tricolour in our hands from Kanyakumari and we will host the tricolour in Srinagar and nobody can stop us. “
He further said that the yatra is against hatred, violence and fear being spread in the country.
“The BJP first spreads fear in the minds of youth, farmers and labourers and when it sets in, they convert it into violence,” the Congress MP said while targeting the Central government.
Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will also be joining the Bharat Jodo Yatra today in Madhya Pradesh where it reaches its halfway mark.
It will be the first time that the brother-sister duo will walk together in the yatra.
Sonia Gandhi had earlier joined the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Karnataka. She had walked with Rahul Gandhi and other Yatris for some distance.
Bharat Jodo Yatra has so far covered parts of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra.
The Yatra, which began on September 7 from Kanyakumari, will end in Kashmir next year. It is the longest march on foot by any Indian politician in the history of India, the Congress claimed earlier in a statement.
Bharat Jodo Yatra is getting support from various political parties and social organizations across the country and the response is increasing day by day, it added.
Notably, all the party MPs, leaders and workers along with Rahul Gandhi are staying in containers. Sleeping beds, toilets and ACs are also installed in some of the containers. The arrangements have been made keeping in view the intense heat and humidity with the change of places.
The Congress suffered a debacle in the assembly polls held earlier this year and the Yatra is seen as an attempt to rally the party rank and file for the upcoming electoral battles. (ANI)