NEW DELHI: Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Friday met spiritual leader Mata Amritanandamayi at her ashram in Kerala’s Kollam, during the Bharat Jodo Yatra.
Taking to social media, Rahul Gandhi shared some pictures with Amritanandamayi Maa who is also known as ‘Amma’ and is revered as ‘the hugging saint’ by her followers.
He captioned the post by mentioning that he was impressed with the work Amma’s organisation has done for the poor and downtrodden people around the world.
“Fortunate to have met Amritanandamayi Maa at her ashram near Karunagappally, Kollam. Very impressed by the amazing work Amma’s organisation has done toward helping the poor and the downtrodden. Offered my humble salutations and received her warm, love-filled hug in return!” he wrote in his post.
Meanwhile, the Congress party’s Bharat Jodo Yatra entered its tenth day with party leaders led by Rahul Gandhi, initiating the march from Puthiyakavu on September 7. The yatra started at 6.40 am from Puthiyakavu in the Kollam district today.
According to Congress, the yatra will enter the Alappuzha district after a march of 11 km in the morning session. There will be an interactive session with youth on unemployment during the break in Kayamkulam. The Yatra is in its Kerala leg and will traverse through the state for the next 13 days.
The 3,500-km march from Kanyakumari to Kashmir will be completed in 150 days and cover as many as 12 states. From Kerala, the Yatra will traverse through the state for the next 18 days, reaching Karnataka on September 30. It will be in Karnataka for 21 days before moving north. The Padayatra (march) will cover a distance of 25 km every day.
The Bharat Jodo Yatra was mired with controversy after a video surfaced of local Congress leaders allegedly extorting donations from a vegetable vendor in Kollam. The vegetable vendor was allegedly threatened by Congress workers for not contributing Rs 2,000 towards the collection of funds for the Bharat Jodo Yatra.
S Fawaz, the vendor, alleged that Congress workers damaged the weighing scale of the shop and destroyed vegetables. He further alleged that the Congress workers created chaos and attacked the staff of the shop.
Following this, Kerala Congress on Friday suspended three party workers. (ANI)