After a successful Kanyakumari-to-Kashmir ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’, the Congress is all set to flag off the east-to-west ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ from Thoubal district in Manipur. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge will flag off the yatra and top leaders of the party will be present at the event.
The Yatra will travel through 110 districts, 100 Lok Sabha seats, 337 Assembly segments in 15 states, covering 6,713 km in 67 days mostly in buses but also on foot. The Yatra will culminate in Mumbai on March 20 and 21.
The Yatra was initially going to be flagged off from Imphal East at the historic Palace Grounds, however, after the state government gave the Congress conditional permission to flag off the Yatra from the venue, restricting the number of people, the Congress decided to go for another venue.
The Congress has said the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra is being organised to raise voice against the “injustice” of the last 10 years. It has released a “Nyay anthem” with the tagline “Saho Mat, Daro Mat (do not suffer, do not be scared)”. The anthem was shared on all the social media handles of the party with a video featuring protesting women wrestlers, glimpses from Gandhi’s Kanyakumari-to-Kashmir Bharat Jodo Yatra and his interactions with farmers and labourers.
The party has also invited all leaders of the Indian National Inclusive Developmental Alliance (INDIA) bloc to join the yatra anywhere along its route.
According to the route released by the party, the yatra would stay the longest in Uttar Pradesh, covering 1,074 km in 11 days. It would pass through politically vital areas, including Amethi, the Gandhi family bastion Rae Bareli and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency of Varanasi.
The Congress has said that it is taking out the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra as the government did not give it a chance to raise people’s issues in Parliament and the initiative is aimed at re-establishing the principles of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity enshrined in the Constitution.
With the BJP focusing on the Ram temple consecration ceremony that is scheduled to take place on January 22, the Congress said that it wants to focus on the bread-and-butter issues through this yatra.
Gandhi had on Friday said emotional issues are being “misused” politically and attention is being diverted from real issues, in a “betrayal” of the people of the country. In a post on X, the former Congress president said, “The youth will have to think about what will be the identity of the India of our dreams? Quality of life or just emotions? Youth raising provocative slogans or the employed youth? Love or hate?”.
The party has asserted that it is not an “electoral yatra”, although, it comes after the party’s poor performance in the recently concluded Assembly elections, and ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.