Rahul Gandhi officially kicks off Congress's ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ from Kanyakumari

|HT|

Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday officially kicked off the Congress's ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ as he along with other party leaders and workers began the rally in Tamil Nadu's Kanyakumari. Ahead of the much-touted 3,570-km yatra, Gandhi also paid a visit to Vivekananda Memorial in the coastal town. While Congress leaders have denied any political angle to this initiative, many are seeing this as the party's attempts to solidify its base to take on the BJP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

“Bharat Jodo Yatra a landmark occasion for Congress, confident that our organisation will be rejuvenated,” Sonia Gandhi said as the party embarked on the yatra. “I will be participating daily in thought and spirit," she added.

Earlier in the day, Rahul Gandhi attended a prayer meeting at the Rajiv Gandhi Memorial in Sriperumbudur, where the former prime minister was assassinated in a suicide bomb blast in 1991. The Wayanad MP also paid floral tribute to his father and sat in front of the memorial for about 25 minutes.

He later wrote on Twitter: “I lost my father to the politics of hate and division. I will not lose my beloved country to it too. Love will conquer hate. Hope will defeat fear. Together, we will overcome.”

Gandhi was welcomed by Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin who had also joined the Congress leader for the prayer meet at the Gandhi Memorial.

In a symbolic gesture of the commencement of Bharat Jodo Yatra, MK Stalin had also handed over the national flag to Rahul Gandhi as both the leaders saluted the tricolour.

The yatra will officially begin at 7am on Thursday when Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, will embark on the journey on foot.

The yatra which began in Kanyakumari will 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.

(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)