New Delhi, Jan 4: The Congress on Thursday renamed the Rahul Gandhi-led Manipur-Mumbai yatra starting on January 14 as the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, which will travel through 100 Lok Sabha segments in 15 states including Arunachal Pradesh, and asserted it will prove to be as “transformative” as his earlier cross-country march.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the party is inviting all leaders of the Indian National Inclusive Developmental Alliance (INDIA) bloc to join the yatra anywhere along its route.
The yatra’s route was finalised at a nearly three-hour meeting Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge chaired with general secretaries, state in-charges, state unit chiefs and Congress Legislature Party leaders at the AICC headquarters here, Ramesh said at a press conference.
According to the route released by the party, the yatra would stay the longest period in Uttar Pradesh, covering 1,074 km in 11 days. It would pass through the politically-vital areas of Amethi, Rae Bareli, Varanasi and Prayagraj.
Ramesh said the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra would traverse 6,713 km in buses and on foot. The yatra will cover 110 districts, 100 Lok Sabha seats and 337 assembly segments in 66 days, starting January 14 from Imphal.
He asserted that the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra would prove to be as impactful and transformative as the earlier Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir.
Explaining the reason for the renaming the yatra from the earlier Bharat Nyay Yatra, Ramesh said all members who attended the meeting including Kharge were of the unanimous view that the success of the Bharat Jodo Yatra had led to it becoming a brand in its own right and had gotten embedded in the minds of the people and that its value should not be lost.
“The ‘Nyay’ idea comes from the first line of the preamble of the Indian Constitution which secures for all its citizens justice – social, economic and political,” Ramesh said.
Then comes liberty, equality and fraternity and all these are all inter-related principles, he said.
During the Bharat Jodo Yatra, Gandhi had raised three big issues of rising inequality, growing social polarisation and increasing political tyranny and authoritarianism, and the way out of this is to ensure justice for the people, Ramesh said.
“The idea of justice is the idea of the yatra but because we had a yatra which proved to be transformative of Indian politics, everyone was unanimous that we should combine the two… Nyay is the objective of the yatra,” he said.
Ramesh also pointed out that though earlier it was announced that the yatra would cover 14 states, they also had Arunachal Pradesh in mind but there were some logistical and security issues, which have now been sorted out. So, the yatra would now cover 15 states, including Arunachal Pradesh, he added.
Giving details of the yatra and its route, Ramesh said it will begin on January 14 from Imphal and will be in Manipur for a day, covering 107 km and four districts.(PTI)
