Congress renames 'Bharat Nyay Yatra' to 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra'

Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh, during a press conference in New Delhi, outlined the details of the campaign that will commence from Manipur on January 14

The Congress party on Thursday announced that it had renamed the key campaign 'Bharat Nyay Yatra' campaign to 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra', just days ahead of its launch. The campaign follows Rahul Gandhi's 2022 campaign 'Bharat Jodo Yatra, which garnered widespread support from the public.

'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra' is set to be launched on January 14, aimed at further boosting the Congress' grassroots connections ahead of the high-stake Lok Sabha elections, likely scheduled during April-May.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh, during a press conference in New Delhi, outlined the details of the campaign that will commence from Manipur and is expected to conclude in Mumbai, Maharashtra, around March 20.

 

The 67-day long journey will cover 15 states and 110 districts from the east to the west of India, stretching over 6,700 km, the party said. Unlike the earlier campaign, 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra' will be mostly on buses with stretches of walking, the party had said earlier.

Between Manipur and Maharashtra, the rally will pass through Nagaland, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat.

The announcement to rename the campaign came after a key meeting of the senior Congress party leaders earlier today. At the meeting convened by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Lok Sabha elections and seat-sharing strategy with the other members of the Opposition's Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc were also discussed. The key alliance of 28 non-BJP parties came together last year in a bid to oust the Narendra Modi government in the upcoming general elections.

Though the Congress boasts itself as the only party in the alliance with a pan-India presence, its defeat in the recently concluded assembly polls held in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh acted as a setback for the grand old party. The success of the upcoming campaign is one factor that can leverage Congress's position as it seeks a key role in the decision-making processes of the INDIA bloc.

Notably, 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' commenced in Tamil Nadu's Kanyakumari on September 7 in 2022, and concluded in Kashmir's Srinagar in January last year. The over 4,000 km journey led by Rahul Gandhi was covered in 136 days.

(With agency inputs)