After completing the south India portion of the party’s largest public outreach in years, the Maharashtra section of the Kanyakumari to Kashmir Bharat Jodo Yatra began on Tuesday. Over the course of 14 days, the yatra’s participants will travel 382 kilometres through Maharashtra before entering Madhya Pradesh.
The yatra’s leader, Rahul Gandhi, began in Maharashtra at 7:30 a.m. from a gurudwara in Nanded and stopped after travelling about five kilometres. After travelling about 10 km, the yatra will resume at 3 p.m. from Khatgaon Phata and end for the day at Bhopala. Gandhi is slated to speak at a nearby meeting.
During the celebrations for Guru Nanak’s birth, Gandhi and other prominent Congress members visited the gurudwara and offered prayers. Outside the gurudwara, a group of Congress workers sung national anthems.
Prior to Gandhi’s arrival in Maharashtra, thousands of people had assembled to greet him. Revanth Reddy, the leader of the Telangana Congress, presented a torch to Nana Patole, his equivalent from Maharashtra, in Deglur, where Gandhi gave a brief speech.
He said that his yatra has been on for two months and will not stop till it reaches Srinagar. “No one can stop this yatra. We will end it only after hoisting the tricolour at Srinagar,” he said. Gandhi said he has undertaken the yatra against hatred, intolerance, and violence being spread in the country.
“For 14 days, I will be in Maharashtra and understand the problems of the people here,” he said.