State Congress to undertake padyatra from August 16, bus yatra in September
Patole will kick off the state-wide foot march in north Vidarbha, while leader of opposition Vijay Wadettiwar will lead the walk from western Vidarbha
Mumbai: The state Congress has declared padyatras (foot march) on the lines of ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ in Maharashtra, starting from August 16, state party president Nana Patole said on Tuesday, adding, it will cover all the six regions, including Mumbai.
He also said that the party will hold a state-wide ‘bus yatra’ in September. “The objective of the padyatra and bus yatra is to expose the wrongdoings and failure of the state and central government,” Patole said.
Patole will kick off the state-wide foot march in north Vidarbha, while leader of opposition Vijay Wadettiwar will lead the walk from western Vidarbha. “The padyatra in western Maharashtra will be led by former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, in Marathwada, former chief minister Ashok Chavan will lead the walk, in north Maharashtra senior leader Balasaheb Thorat will lead the party and in Mumbai, city Congress president Varsha Gaikwad will take the lead,” Patole said.
For Konkan, where the party is weak compared to other regions, plans are on to have all the leaders assemble for the padyatra, he added.
Meanwhile, the second phase of ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ is also in the planning stage in which Rahul Gandhi may travel from Gujarat to a northeast state.
Congress insiders said the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra 2.0’ is likely to cover poll-bound northern states, such as Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Rahul wants to extensively cover Uttar Pradesh, imparting the message of peace. He is considering walking for around 22 days across the state, which has the maximum number of Lok Sabha seats — 63.
Jairam Ramesh, general secretary and in-charge of communications of Congress, had spoken about the possibility of another padyatra from Porbandar in Gujarat to Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh, in February. The earlier template of the walk will be tweaked this time considering the jungles and rivers that fall on this route, he had said.
On Monday, the Gujarat Congress extended an invitation to Rahul to begin his journey from the ‘land of Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel’. “It may not have such an elaborate infrastructure as was mobilised for the initial Bharat Jodo Yatra and may have less yatris. It would be a multi-modal yatra, but mostly a padayatra,” Ramesh had said.
In the first phase of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, Gandhi walked from Kanyakumari to Kashmir for more than 130 days and covered 12 states and two union territories.
