Strengthening their fight against the BJP, DMK President and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin will launch the Bharat Jodo Yatra to be undertaken by Rahul Gandhi and other senior Congress leaders from Kanyakumari on September 7.
Stalin will join Rahul Gandhi at the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial on the seashore and flag off the nationwide yatra which will travel through 12 states and two union territories before reaching Jammu and Kashmir.
“Rahul Gandhi will be joined by the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister at the Gandhi Memorial from where the Bharat Jodo Yatra will be flagged off,” Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) chief K S Alagiri said on Sunday.
Stalin’s presence at the launch of the much-awaited tour against the BJP-RSS’ and the Union Government’s policies is significant and demonstrates the “strong ties” that the two parties enjoy. The event also comes weeks after Stalin declared that the DMK will not make “even slightest of compromise” ideologically with the BJP and that there was “no relationship” between the two political parties, amid speculation that the regional party and the national party might do business with each other.
This is the second time that Rahul and Stalin will share the stage this year – in February, the Congress leader flew to Chennai to launch the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister’s autobiography.
Alagiri said leaders of alliance partners will join the yatra during the Tamil Nadu leg from September 8-10 and support Rahul Gandhi’s fight against the “RSS and the BJP’s efforts to revive Sanatana Dharma” in the country.
After the launch of the yatra, Rahul Gandhi will walk a three-km distance from the seashore to address a public meeting. He will then walk for 20 to 25 kilometers each on September 8, 9, and 10 in Kanyakumari district before the yatra ventures into Kerala the next day.
After walking for 19 days in Kerala, Gandhi will reach Karnataka via the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu, where he will spend a day. The Tamil Nadu leg of the yatra will cover nearly 70 km through Kanyakumari district.
From September 8 to 10, Gandhi is expected to visit several villages en route to Kerala and interact with the general public to hear their grievances.
Rahul Gandhi will reach Chennai on September 7 morning to visit his father Rajiv Gandhi’s memorial in Sriperumbudur, 50 km from Chennai, where he was assassinated by a LTTE suicide bomber in 1991. He will fly to Kanyakumari from Chennai.