100 LS Seats, 15 States: Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra Flagged Off From Manipur

‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’– the Congress’s second large-scale outreach programme led by party leader Rahul Gandhi, began from the Thoubal district of Manipur on Sunday.

Leading the marchers, Gandhi is set to travel through 15 states and cover over 6,700 kilometres in around 67 days.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge flagged off the Yatra. After its commencement in the northeastern state, the foot march will travel through 15 states and cover at least 100 Lok Sabha seats. The Yatra, which comes months ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, is seen as the grand old party’s bid to set the narrative in the run-up to Parliamentary polls.

Kharge said PM Modi comes to Manipur to ask for votes but when the people of Manipur are in trouble he doesn’t show his face.  “‘Wo samandar ke upar sair karta firta hai aur baithe jagah jap karte rehte hein Ram Ram’. Mukh mein Ram, bagal mein choori’, don’t do this with the people…everybody has faith in God but don’t do this for votes…these people (BJP) mix religion to provoke people,” the Congress chief said.

However, the Congress has asserted that the Yatra is ideological and not an electoral one and said it was being taken out against the “Anyay Kaal” of 10 years of Prime Minister Narendra Narendra Modi-led government.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the biggest challenge before the country is that it is facing an ideology which believes in polarisation, economic inequalities and political authoritarianism.

“The prime minister shows golden dreams of ‘amrit kaal’ but what is the reality of the last 10 years – ‘anyay kaal’. No mention of ‘anyay kaal’ is made while big boasts of ‘amrit kaal’ are projected,” Ramesh said.

The party also said that Yatra would demand justice for the women, youth, farmers and poor and it would be historic as well.

Flagging-off Ceremony

Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra will be flagged off from a private ground in Manipur’s Thoubal district amid a few restrictions. The commencement of the foot march from Manipur holds significance against the backdrop of ongoing ethnic violence in the state, which has claimed over 180 lives since May.

Congress’s Manipur president Keisham Meghachandra said that permission was sought to begin the Yatra from the Hapta Kangjeibung ground in Imphal but the state government gave the go-ahead with certain conditions, forcing to move the venue around 34 km at the last moment.

“We were told that not more than 1,000 people will be allowed at the venue. As the permission was not given, we were in an alarming situation. Late on Thursday night, Thoubal DC permitted flagging off the Yatra from a private land in Khongjom area of the district,” he said.

The flagging-off ceremony should be completed within an hour and the number of participants should not exceed over 3000, according to the order issued by the Thoubal administration.

As per the order, the time limit has been imposed on the event because the venue is just beside and along the national highway and the traffic has to be diverted to alternate routes for that period.

The administration also asserted that “There shall be no anti-national or communal or any adverse slogan during the rally and the Yatra” and if any law and order situation arose the “gathering to be disassembled in order to maintain peace, public order and tranquillity in the area”.

Before the commencement of the Yatra, Rahul Gandhi is set to reach Thoubal at 11 am and visit the Khongjom War Memorial.

100 Lok Sabha Seats, 15 States in 67 Days

Apart from Gandhi and party chief Kharge, other top Congress leaders are expected to participate in the outreach programme aiming to revive its electoral prospects following a poor showing in the last round of assembly elections.

The Yatra will culminate in Mumbai on March 20 or 21. Besides Manipur, the yatra will cover four other northeastern states — Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Assam.

The marchers will then move on to West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

The Yatra is set to spend the most amount of time in Uttar Pradesh, covering 1,074 km across 20 districts in 11 days, followed by eight days in Jharkhand, and seven days each in Assam, and Madhya Pradesh.

The ambitious yatra of the Congress party will traverse 6,713 km, mostly on buses and also on foot, covering about 100 Lok Sabha seats and 337 assembly segments.