Mile kadam, jude watan or step by step, unite India. With this official tagline, the Congress on Tuesday launched the website and the official logo of the 3,500-km-long Bharat Jodo Yatra that is expected to be led by former party chief Rahul Gandhi from the start to finish.
Addressing a joint press conference, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh and national coordinator of the padayatra Digvijaya Singh said the yatra was necessary in national interest to counter growing economic inequality, social polarisation and political divisions in the country.
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Five months
Mr. Ramesh said the main yatra would cover 3,570 km from Kanyakumari in the south to Kashmir in the north over a period of about five months beginning from September 7. It would pass through 12 States and two Union Territories. Simultaneously, smaller Bharat Jodo Yatras would be taken out in various States that would not come on the main route.
“There will be 100 padayatris who will walk from the start to finish. They will be Bharat Yatris. Around 100 people will keep joining from the States through which this yatra is not passing, these people will be Atithi Yatris. Around 100 yatris will be involved from the States through which the journey will pass, these will be Pradesh Yatris. At a time, there will be 300 padayatris,” Mr. Singh explained.
Responding to a question, he said, “Rahul Gandhi is a big leader of the country and will be a Bharat Yatri in the yatra.”
The Congress claimed a padayatra or mass contact programme of this scale had not taken place in independent India.
The yatra would start from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu and then move northwards passing through Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Nilambur, Mysuru, Bellary, Raichur, Vikarabad, Nanded, Jalgaon, Indore, Kota, Dausa, Alwar, Bulandshahr, Delhi, Ambala, Pathankot, Jammu, and culminate in Srinagar.
Mr. Ramesh said the party could also consider a similar yatra from Porbandar in Gujarat to Parasuram Kund in Arunachal Pradesh in the east at a later stage.
