Second phase of Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra from Gujarat to Meghalaya: Congress
The second phase of Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra has been planned and will cover the states between Gujarat and Meghalaya, said Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole.
Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole on Tuesday said that after the overwhelming response to the first phase of Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, now the second phase from Gujarat to Meghalaya has been planned. He added that Maharashtra Congress leaders will take out a march at the same time in the state.
Patole said as preparations for the yatra in Maharashtra, 48 party observers have been appointed for each Lok Sabha seat in the state. These observers will submit a report about the ground situation within six days, after which a core committee meeting will take place on August 16.
According to Patole, he will lead the yatra in East Vidarbha, Varsha Gaikwad will lead it in Mumbai, Vijay Wadettiwar in West Vidarbha, Balasaheb Thorat in North Maharashtra, Ashok Chavan in Marathwada and Prithviraj Chavan in West Maharashtra. Afterwards, all the leaders will go to Konkan together. Patole said a yatra bus would be taken out after the padyatra.
This comes a day after the Gujarat Congress said it invited Rahul Gandhi to start the second phase of his yatra from the state. "We have extended an invitation to Rahul Gandhi to start the second phase of Bharat Jodo Yatra from Gujarat, which is the land of Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel. The second phase should begin from the state," Gujarat Leader of Opposition Amit Chavda was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
He added that the second phase of the yatra is likely to cover states from the East to the West this time after the first one covered states between the South and the North of India.
The first phase of Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra began in September 2022 from Tamil Nadu's Kanyakumari and came to a close in Jammu and Kashmir's Srinagar on January 30. The padyatra covered 12 states and two Union Territories.
Two months after the yatra came to an end, Rahul Gandhi was convicted in the defamation case over his 'Modi' surname remark and sentenced to two years in jail. He was also disqualified as a Lok Sabha MP following his conviction.
However, the Supreme Court put a stay on his conviction last week and he was reinstated as a Lok Sabha MP on Monday.
Meanwhile, the BJP called Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo yatra a failure and said Maharashtra Congress is headed for the same fate. "Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo yatra was a failure. After the yatra passed, MLAs from those states left the party. Does the Maharashtra Congress leader want to follow the same example? Congress is carrying out padyatra because they have no connection with people. Adding to this, they are focusing on Kokan region where Uddhav Thackeray's party has some presence. It's clear Mahavikas Aghadi is only existing on paper," said Madhav Bhandari, vice president of Maharashtra BJP.
