Bharat Jodo Yatra to enter Hindi belt through Madhya Pradesh from tomorrow

The Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra will enter the Hindi belt, the main electoral catchment area of the BJP, on Wednesday beginning with its around 13-day trip through Madhya Pradesh. During the Madhya Pradesh phase, starting from Burhanpur district, Gandhi will visit the famous temple of Ujjain and the birth place of BR Ambedkar at Mhow, according to the programme.

The Yatra is expected to pass through at least five districts of the state such as Burhanpur, Khargone, Indore, Khandwa and Ujjain, before it moves to Congress-ruled Rajasthan.

With Madhya Pradesh headed for the assembly polls by next year end, the reasonably well-oiled state Congress machinery is expected to do a decent crowd-mobilisation for the Congress yatra with PCC chief Kamal Nath and Bharat Jodo Yatra coordinator Digvijaya Singh bound to tap their organisational bases in their home state. Gandhi is also scheduled to address a public rally in Ujjain.


The Congress has already advertised that Gandhi will not attend the upcoming winter session of Parliament due to the yatra.

Meanwhile, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday held a session, a kind of 'karyakarta durbar', with Congress workers at the party headquarters here, his first since he assumed charge late last month. Many Congress workers turned up at the 24, Akbar Road headquarters to interact with the new party president, exchanging their views and making their requests.

Yet, the build-up for Kharge's 'outing' was glaringly different from the atmospherics the Congress leadership used to set for Sonia Gandhi's 'Janata Durbar', which she used to hold in the initial years of her presidency at the party HQ and mostly at the 10 Janpath lawns in which many (nominated) AICC functionaries used to be dutifully present or assist her. Only a couple of AICC in-charges such as Rajiv Shukla and Bhakta Charan Das, were present to witness Kharge's meeting with the party workers at the AICC premises while most other AICC general secretaries and in-charges were missing, with someone taking pains to say that they may have been busy in poll campaigning.