Rahul Gandhi to begin Manipur-Mumbai ‘Bharat Nyay Yatra’ from Jan 14
6,200-km yatra, covering 14 states and 85 districts, to be mostly covered by bus with short stretches of walking; to end in Mumbai on March 20
Rahul Gandhi’s much-awaited Bharat Jodo Yatra 2.0 will begin on January 14, AICC general secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal announced on Wednesday (December 27). The 6,200-km east-west march will be called the Bharat Nyay Yatra, which will begin from the ethnic strife-torn Manipur and end in Mumbai on March 20.
The Bharat Nyay Yatra, which comes just ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, will cover 14 states and 85 districts. “The Congress Working Committee had suggested that Rahul Gandhi should start a yatra from east to west... So, the All-India Congress Committee (AICC) has decided to hold a Bharat Nyay Yatra from January 14 to March 20 from Manipur to Mumbai,” he said.
“Rahul Gandhi led the Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, travelling 4,500 km. That was a historic yatra in the Indian political history. He will be undertaking this yatra with the experience he had from the Bharat Jodo Yatra. This yatra will hold interaction with women of this country, youth and the marginalised community,” he said.
Venugopal said the yatra will cover 6,200 km and traverse through Manipur, Nagaland, Assam, Meghalaya, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Gujarat before reaching Maharashtra.
“The yatra will cover 14 states and 85 districts. It will be mostly covered by bus along with short stretches of walking,” he said. Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge will reportedly flag off the yatra in Imphal.
Venugopal said the yatra is expected to “enthuse the youth, women, and all marginalised people”.
Regarding the naming of the “Nyay Yatra”, the Congress said it will be to secure economic, social, and political justice for the people of India. In that context, choosing the violence-hit Manipur as the starting point seems quite strategic. According to Venugopal, the yatra will “heal the wounds of the state”.
“This is not a political yatra. We will raise the issues of the common people,” Venugopal insisted. He stressed that it would not affect the poll preparations for which the party would have “a separate mechanism”.
Gandhi had started the 4500-km Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kanyakumari in September last year. The five-month foot march had thousands of Congress workers, Opposition leaders, and people from all walks of life joining in.
The success of the Bharat Jodo Yatra was widely credited for the party’s electoral performance in Karnataka and Telangana. The Congress snatched power from the BJP in Karnataka and the BRS in Telangana in Assembly elections this year.
(With agency inputs)