Congress awaits ground permission for Rahul-led Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra

Imphal: Congress Monday said that it is awaiting the 'ground permission' from the Manipur government for launching its Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, for which it had applied about a week ago.

The AICC in-charge of Manipur, Girish Chodankar told reporters here that the party leaders met the state chief secretary Vineet Joshi during the day and was assured that they will be informed about the granting of the permission on Monday evening itself.

"We applied to the Manipur government on January 2 itself for the ground permission for the launching of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra at Hapta Kangjeibung in Imphal East district on January 14, but it has not yet been approved so far. The AICC team met the chief secretary today to seek the ground permission for this rally at the earliest. We have apprised him that the rally will be peaceful," Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president Keisham Meghachandra said.

"We met the chief secretary with no intention to politicise the issue. Even if the permission is not granted, we would like a word on it," he said.

Chodankar claimed, "We are actually trying to help the government to showcase to the world that Manipur is returning to normalcy."

"We are very hopeful there will be no politics over this yatra. The Manipur chief minister should understand the importance of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra and think about Manipur first and not BJP politics," he said.

Meghachandra said that on January 14 several leaders of the party, including chief ministers and MPs from across the country will gather in Manipur for a peaceful rally. 'The Yatra will be a huge national programme and a big message will be delivered from it'.

The Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will be launched from Imphal on January 14 and culminate on March 20 in Mumbai. It is being held with the coming general election in mind.

"He(Joshi) said the matter is with the chief minister .... We have to do all the preparations as the party leaders will be coming from across the country for the Yatra," Chodankar said.

Manipur is in the grip of continued ethnic violence since May and over 180 people have been killed in it so far. Several hundreds have been injured.