Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is set to embark on a yatra connecting the northeastern and western parts of the country with an eye on next year’s national elections. Mr Gandhi will begin his ‘Bharat Nyay Yatra’ from January 14, a 6,200-km tour from Manipur to Mumbai.
The yatra, set to conclude on March 20 ahead of the elections, is dubbed as the second and East-West phase of his north-south Bharat Jodo Yatra last year that was credited by the party for its election victories in two southern states.
The BJP, however, took a jibe at the Congress announcement and said the people had rejected the idea of Bharat Jodo Yatra.
Mr Gandhi will cover 14 states and 85 districts during the ‘Bharat Nyay Yatra’, which will be flagged off by Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge in Imphal.
Manipur, Nagaland, Assam, Meghalaya, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra will be among the states he will cover. This will include stretches of bus rides as well as footmarches.
The Nyay Yatra will be for securing economic, social and political justice for the people of the country, the Congress said.
On choosing violence-hit Manipur as the starting point, the Congress said the party wanted to begin the process of healing the wounds of people.
‘Duplicity In Approaches’
The BJP said the people cannot be fooled by coining some slogans.
“The people of India had clearly rejected the idea of Bharat Jodo Yatra because Rahul Gandhi and the Congress cannot have duplicity in these approaches. They think the people of India can be fooled by coining some slogans,” said BJP spokesperson Nalin Kohli.
The “real nyay (justice)” is being delivered by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government since 2014, he added.
Mr Gandhi had embarked on his Bharat Jodo Yatra in September last year from Kanyakumari. The five-month footmarch that saw the participation of thousands of Congress workers as well as Opposition leaders ended in Srinagar in January.
Congress leaders had widely credited the Bharat Jodo Yatra behind the party’s electoral performance in Karnataka and Telangana. The Congress had snatched power from the BJP in Karnataka and BRS in Telangana in elections held this year.
