Former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Raghuram Rajan, on Wednesday joined Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during his Bharat Jodo Yatra that resumed this morning from Bhadoti of Sawai Madhopur in Rajasthan. “Shri Raghuram Rajan, former Governor of RBI, joins Rahul Gandhi ji… The increasing number of people standing up to unite the country against hatred shows that we will be successful,” the Congress tweeted from its official Twitter handle.

Rajan, often seen as a critic of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, joined Rahul Gandhi for a discussion on the economy for around half an hour during the walk, reported news agency IANS. The discussion, according to the agency, was for a documentary.

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Rajan was appointed the RBI Governor during the second term of the UPA and served into the initial years of the Modi government. A vocal critic of demonetisation, Rajan has expressed concerns over India’s economic growth and fiscal deficit in the past.

Rajan joining the Bharat Jodo Yatra has also caught the BJP’s attention, which termed the development as opportunistic and coloured. “Raghuram Rajan, former RBI Governor, a Congress appointee, joining Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra is not a surprise. He fancies himself as the next Manmohan Singh. Just that his commentary on India’s economy should be discarded with disdain. It is coloured and opportunistic…,” tweeted BJP leader Amit Malviya.

The Bharat Jodo Yatra is just two days away from completing 100 days since it began from Tamil Nadu’s Kanyakumari. To mark the occasion, the party has planned a concert on December 16 which will see performances by Sunidhi Chauhan, among others.

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“Rahul ji will hold a press conference on 16th in Dausa, because we will be crossing a milestone on 16th – it will be the 100th day of Bharat Jodo Yatra. Hence we thought that there should be a press conference by Rahul ji on the special occasion,” Jairam Ramesh, general secretary in-charge of communications, Congress, said on Tuesday.

Rahul’s yatra will observe December 17 as a rest day followed by a rally in Alwar on December 19 before entering Haryana.