After 150-day 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, Congress hints at West to East tour next year

With the 150-day-long Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir completing one week, the Congress has already indicated that it could embark on another yatra -- from Gujarat in the West to Arunachal Pradesh in the East -- after the completion of this yatra early next year, reported The Indian Express. 

Addressing a media interaction in Kollam at the end of the fourth day of the Kerala leg of the Bharat Jodo Yatra on Wednesday, AICC general secretary in charge of communication Jairam Ramesh said: “It is possible that with the success of this yatra, next year we will have an East to West yatra. Because in India whenever you do something there will be people asking you why are you not doing something else? For everything you do, there are five questions why you are not doing this. So I want to take this head-on and say it is possible that in 2023 the yatra will be from Porbandar in Gujarat to Parshuram Kund in Arunachal Pradesh. It is possible that we will have this yatra.”

Ramesh also exuded confidence that the Bharat Jodo Yatra will transform Indian politics and strengthen the Congress party. The party believes that the yatra has created a new “image” for the Congress.

The 3,570-km-long foot march will cover 12 states and two Union territories in 150 days (nearly five months). Led by Rahul Gandhi, along with 117 party leaders from across states, the foot march is being touted as the largest campaign undertaken by the party in several decades. 

The Bharat Jodo Yatra, which entered Kerala on September 10 evening, will traverse through the state covering 450 kilometres, touching seven districts over a period of 19 days before entering Karnataka on October 1.

The yatra will enter Alappuzha on September 17 and pass through Ernakulam district on September 21 and 22 and reach Thrissur on September 23. The foot march will traverse through Palakkad on September 26 and 27 and enter Malappuram on September 28.

Experts see the yatra as the party's revival big ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, and also an attempt to life up Rahul Gandhi's political graph. Meanwhile, they also believe that such a tour could have been more impactful, had the party first resolved the issue of leadership crisis.