Indian Overseas Congress holds solidarity Bharat Jodo Yatra in London

The Indian Overseas Congress (IOC) UK chapter organised a Bharat Jodo Yatra in London in solidarity with the yatra being led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in India.

The hour-long London yatra brought together over 100 members of the IOC UK team on Saturday for a march starting at the historic Mahatma Gandhi statue at Tavistock Square and concluding at the statue of Jawaharlal Nehru outside the Indian High Commission in central London.

Various states of India, including Punjab, Telangana, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, West Bengal, and Haryana, were among those represented at the yatra.

"Everyone actively participated in the yatra with Indian flags, with many wearing masks of Rahulji to express their support for him and his efforts to unite India,” IOC UK said.

"The walk was very energetic and the participants shouted slogans like ‘Rahulji ham aapke saath hai (we are with you), Jai Bharat and Satyameva Jayate,” it said.

The London yatra began with floral tributes and concluded with IOC UK Team leaders addressing the gathering.

The speeches, coordinated by IOC UK spokesperson Sudhakar Goud, were led by IOC UK President Kamal Dhaliwal, who promised similar events in the UK to support the ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra by Rahul Gandhi across different parts of India.

"India needs unity now more than at any time since independence,” said Dhaliwal.

The Rahul Gandhi led yatra, a declared attempt to connect directly with people around India, involves a group of Congress workers walking from Kanyakumari at the southern tip of India to the northernmost region of Kashmir.

The roughly 3,500-km journey began in early September and is expected to last around five months as part of the Opposition Congress Party's efforts to highlight issues it has classified as "social polarisation, economic inequalities and political centralisation".