By PTI
NEW DELHI: Before the launch of the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ on September 7, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will take part in a prayer meeting at former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s memorial in Sriperumbudur and attend an event in Kanyakumari where Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin will hand over the national flag to him, sources said on Friday.
After the event at the Mahatma Gandhi Mandapam where Stalin will be present, Rahul Gandhi, along with other Congress leaders, will walk to the venue of the public rally where the yatra will be launched.
Though the 3,570-km yatra from Kanyakumari to Srinagar will be formally launched at the rally, it will actually begin at 7 am on September 8 when Gandhi and several other Congress leaders will embark on the journey, the sources said.
The ‘padayatra’ will reach Kerala on September 11 and will traverse through the state for the next 18 days, reaching Karnataka on September 30.
The yatra will remain in Karnataka for 21 days before moving to other states northwards.
The party has classified 118 leaders, including Gandhi, as ‘Bharat Yatris’ who will walk through the distance from Kanyakumari to Srinagar.
They will cover on an average 20-25 km a day.
Nine leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, out of the 118 ‘Bharat Yatris’ are in the age bracket of 51-60 years, sources said.
Of the 118 leaders, 20 are in the age bracket of 25-30, 51 between 31-40, 38 between 41-50, they said.
The yatra will 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.
The classification of those participating in the yatra is — ‘Bharat Yatris’, ‘Atithi Yatras’ and ‘Pradesh Yatris’.
A new classification of ‘Volunteer Yatris’ has been introduced after over 37,000 common people not related to the party registered on the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ website.
Before the launch of the yatra on September 7, Rahul Gandhi will also visit Vivekananda Rock Memorial, Thiruvalluvar Statue and Kamaraj Memorial in Kanyakumari.
The ‘padayatra’ will move in two batches one from 7-10:30 am in the morning and the other from 3:30 pm to 6:30 pm in the evening.
While the morning session would include a lesser number of participants, the evening session would see mass mobilisation, the sources said.
The tagline of the yatra is ‘Mile Kadam, Jude Watan’.
In a tweet in Hindi, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, “For the Bharat Jodo Yatra preparations, Digvijaya Singh and I visited three states in the last three days. We will soon go to other states. There is a tremendous amount of enthusiasm and excitement about the journey. The whole party is involved in this.”
‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ is transformational politics and it is not ‘Mann ki Baat’ but concern for the people, he added, in a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
First keep your flock together, then talk of Bharat Jodo: Nadda to Cong
Making an unsparing attack on the Congress that has seen an exit of many senior leaders in recent times, BJP chief J P Nadda on Friday mocked the party’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, telling it to first keep its flock together.
Taking a dig at the Congress during a rally in Haryana’s Kaithal, he also accused it of being a family-centric party.
“The Congress is now neither a party of ideology nor a national party, nor even a regional party. It has been reduced to a brother-sister party,” Nadda said apparently referring to former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi.
Referring to senior Congress Ghulam Nabi Azad’s exit from the party, he said the people who spent 50 years for it and gave their blood and sweat are deserting it.
“Did you ever think why are they leaving,” the BJP chief asked, adding that senior leaders are quitting with a message that the party first needs to keep its flock together.
“Now, they are talking of Bharat Jodo, Bharat Jodo, ‘arrey pehle party toh jod lo’ (unite the party first),” he added.
A similar suggestion was given by Azad to Congress president Sonia Gandhi in his resignation letter, saying before starting the Bharat Jodo Yatra, the leadership should have undertaken a “Congress jodo” exercise across the country.
The Congress will commence next week its Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir.
The yatra will cover 3,750 km over a period of 150 days.
Nadda further said the BJP and the governments led by it are working to take the country and states ahead and bringing a change in the lives of people, including weaker sections and women.
Mentioning several parties, Nadda said the BJP is pitted against family-centric outfits, which only care about themselves and their families while the BJP and the governments led by it think about the nation and the country’s people.
“Whose party has the Shiv Sena remained now, a family party. The real Shiv Sena has left them,” he said.
He said while Prime Minister Narendra Modi is working to bring about a change in people’s lives, the family-centric parties are working to save themselves and their children.
“We are for the country, they are for themselves,” he said.
“And also understand another thing, those who are fighting against corruption, they themselves are on bail. What will they fight,” he said without taking any names.
Nadda also alleged that in the past 70 years whenever there was a Congress rule and those of other parties, they tried to divide society and made a brother fight against his brother, pitted one caste against the other, one region against the other for the sake of power.
He claimed that people are reaping benefits of bringing the BJP to power.
“That is why I always say if you have to enjoy the light, remember darkness. If you think of good days, then remember the days of the past, then you will know how difference is made when right party and right person occupies the seat of power,” he said.
He said today the country is not only making progress, “but we are progressing with leaps and bounds”.
He asserted the BJP is the only party which is working to bring a change in people’s lives.
The BJP is the party which works for the welfare of weaker sections, farmers, women, youth, underprivileged and the poor, he said.
He touched upon several schemes initiated for women by the Narendra Modi government while Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who was also present, touched upon the zero tolerance policy shown by his dispensation towards corruption and highlighted several pro-people initiatives of his government.
Nadda praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for changing the culture and definition of politics and governance.
He said when the Covid pandemic broke out even the nations with better health facilities were seen struggling but it was due to the prime minister’s vision and leadership that India fought the crisis effectively.
He said within a few months India came out with vaccine against Covid and people got a “suraksha kavach” against the disease.
Nadda is on a two-day visit to Haryana, during which he will hold a series of meetings with party workers and leaders.
On Friday, he also held party meetings in Ambala and Panchkula.
His visit comes ahead of the panchayat polls in the state.
Sitting in government-sanctioned ‘bungalows with huge lawns & planting fake news’: Ramesh’s dig at Azad
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh took a veiled dig at former party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Friday and accused him of planting fake news while sitting in “Modi Sarkar sanctioned bungalows with huge lawns” in Delhi.
Referring to a video of Congress workers holding a public meeting in Jammu and Kashmir’s Bhalessa, the native place of Azad, Ramesh said, “This is ground reality, not reality manufactured by people sitting in New Delhi in Modi Sarkar sanctioned bungalows with huge lawns and planting fake news.”
The Jammu and Kashmir Congress shared the video on Twitter and wrote: “Congress workers of all blocks of Sub Division Bhalessa assembled at Congress office Gandoh to hold monthly meeting which is being conducted 1st day of every month for last more than 50 years. Bhalessa is the home village of Ghulam Nabi Azad.”
Azad has attacked the party leadership, including Ramesh, after he announced his resignation from the Congress in a five-page stinging letter to Sonia Gandhi last week.
Azad particularly targeted Rahul Gandhi, alleging he does not have the aptitude or interest in politics.
NEW DELHI: Before the launch of the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ on September 7, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will take part in a prayer meeting at former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s memorial in Sriperumbudur and attend an event in Kanyakumari where Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin will hand over the national flag to him, sources said on Friday.
After the event at the Mahatma Gandhi Mandapam where Stalin will be present, Rahul Gandhi, along with other Congress leaders, will walk to the venue of the public rally where the yatra will be launched.
Though the 3,570-km yatra from Kanyakumari to Srinagar will be formally launched at the rally, it will actually begin at 7 am on September 8 when Gandhi and several other Congress leaders will embark on the journey, the sources said.
The ‘padayatra’ will reach Kerala on September 11 and will traverse through the state for the next 18 days, reaching Karnataka on September 30.
The yatra will remain in Karnataka for 21 days before moving to other states northwards.
The party has classified 118 leaders, including Gandhi, as ‘Bharat Yatris’ who will walk through the distance from Kanyakumari to Srinagar.
They will cover on an average 20-25 km a day.
Nine leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, out of the 118 ‘Bharat Yatris’ are in the age bracket of 51-60 years, sources said.
Of the 118 leaders, 20 are in the age bracket of 25-30, 51 between 31-40, 38 between 41-50, they said.
The yatra will 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.
The classification of those participating in the yatra is — ‘Bharat Yatris’, ‘Atithi Yatras’ and ‘Pradesh Yatris’.
A new classification of ‘Volunteer Yatris’ has been introduced after over 37,000 common people not related to the party registered on the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ website.
Before the launch of the yatra on September 7, Rahul Gandhi will also visit Vivekananda Rock Memorial, Thiruvalluvar Statue and Kamaraj Memorial in Kanyakumari.
The ‘padayatra’ will move in two batches one from 7-10:30 am in the morning and the other from 3:30 pm to 6:30 pm in the evening.
While the morning session would include a lesser number of participants, the evening session would see mass mobilisation, the sources said.
The tagline of the yatra is ‘Mile Kadam, Jude Watan’.
In a tweet in Hindi, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, “For the Bharat Jodo Yatra preparations, Digvijaya Singh and I visited three states in the last three days. We will soon go to other states. There is a tremendous amount of enthusiasm and excitement about the journey. The whole party is involved in this.”
‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ is transformational politics and it is not ‘Mann ki Baat’ but concern for the people, he added, in a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
First keep your flock together, then talk of Bharat Jodo: Nadda to Cong
Making an unsparing attack on the Congress that has seen an exit of many senior leaders in recent times, BJP chief J P Nadda on Friday mocked the party’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, telling it to first keep its flock together.
Taking a dig at the Congress during a rally in Haryana’s Kaithal, he also accused it of being a family-centric party.
“The Congress is now neither a party of ideology nor a national party, nor even a regional party. It has been reduced to a brother-sister party,” Nadda said apparently referring to former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi.
Referring to senior Congress Ghulam Nabi Azad’s exit from the party, he said the people who spent 50 years for it and gave their blood and sweat are deserting it.
“Did you ever think why are they leaving,” the BJP chief asked, adding that senior leaders are quitting with a message that the party first needs to keep its flock together.
“Now, they are talking of Bharat Jodo, Bharat Jodo, ‘arrey pehle party toh jod lo’ (unite the party first),” he added.
A similar suggestion was given by Azad to Congress president Sonia Gandhi in his resignation letter, saying before starting the Bharat Jodo Yatra, the leadership should have undertaken a “Congress jodo” exercise across the country.
The Congress will commence next week its Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir.
The yatra will cover 3,750 km over a period of 150 days.
Nadda further said the BJP and the governments led by it are working to take the country and states ahead and bringing a change in the lives of people, including weaker sections and women.
Mentioning several parties, Nadda said the BJP is pitted against family-centric outfits, which only care about themselves and their families while the BJP and the governments led by it think about the nation and the country’s people.
“Whose party has the Shiv Sena remained now, a family party. The real Shiv Sena has left them,” he said.
He said while Prime Minister Narendra Modi is working to bring about a change in people’s lives, the family-centric parties are working to save themselves and their children.
“We are for the country, they are for themselves,” he said.
“And also understand another thing, those who are fighting against corruption, they themselves are on bail. What will they fight,” he said without taking any names.
Nadda also alleged that in the past 70 years whenever there was a Congress rule and those of other parties, they tried to divide society and made a brother fight against his brother, pitted one caste against the other, one region against the other for the sake of power.
He claimed that people are reaping benefits of bringing the BJP to power.
“That is why I always say if you have to enjoy the light, remember darkness. If you think of good days, then remember the days of the past, then you will know how difference is made when right party and right person occupies the seat of power,” he said.
He said today the country is not only making progress, “but we are progressing with leaps and bounds”.
He asserted the BJP is the only party which is working to bring a change in people’s lives.
The BJP is the party which works for the welfare of weaker sections, farmers, women, youth, underprivileged and the poor, he said.
He touched upon several schemes initiated for women by the Narendra Modi government while Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who was also present, touched upon the zero tolerance policy shown by his dispensation towards corruption and highlighted several pro-people initiatives of his government.
Nadda praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for changing the culture and definition of politics and governance.
He said when the Covid pandemic broke out even the nations with better health facilities were seen struggling but it was due to the prime minister’s vision and leadership that India fought the crisis effectively.
He said within a few months India came out with vaccine against Covid and people got a “suraksha kavach” against the disease.
Nadda is on a two-day visit to Haryana, during which he will hold a series of meetings with party workers and leaders.
On Friday, he also held party meetings in Ambala and Panchkula.
His visit comes ahead of the panchayat polls in the state.
Sitting in government-sanctioned ‘bungalows with huge lawns & planting fake news’: Ramesh’s dig at Azad
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh took a veiled dig at former party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Friday and accused him of planting fake news while sitting in “Modi Sarkar sanctioned bungalows with huge lawns” in Delhi.
Referring to a video of Congress workers holding a public meeting in Jammu and Kashmir’s Bhalessa, the native place of Azad, Ramesh said, “This is ground reality, not reality manufactured by people sitting in New Delhi in Modi Sarkar sanctioned bungalows with huge lawns and planting fake news.”
The Jammu and Kashmir Congress shared the video on Twitter and wrote: “Congress workers of all blocks of Sub Division Bhalessa assembled at Congress office Gandoh to hold monthly meeting which is being conducted 1st day of every month for last more than 50 years. Bhalessa is the home village of Ghulam Nabi Azad.”
Azad has attacked the party leadership, including Ramesh, after he announced his resignation from the Congress in a five-page stinging letter to Sonia Gandhi last week.
Azad particularly targeted Rahul Gandhi, alleging he does not have the aptitude or interest in politics.
