SP, BSP & others likely to skip Jan 30 Bharat Jodo Yatra event in Kashmir

Despite Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge's invitation to political parties, many, including the JD(U) are likely to skip the Bharat Jodo Yatra programme on January 30 in Kashmir.

Those likely to skip include the SP, BSP, JD(U) TDP and CPI(M).

The CPI(M) has not joined the Yatra so far. The Janata Dal (United) has an alliance with the Congress in Bihar, but is likley to stay away.

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Kharge wrote letters to like-minded parties in the first week of January. "I now invite you personally to join the concluding function of the Bharat Jodo Yatra on January 30," he wrote in a letter sent to the Trinamool Congress, the Janata Dal(United), the Shiv Sena-UBT, the Telugu Desam Party, the National Conference (both Farooq and Omar Abdullah were invited), the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party, the DMK, the CPI, the CPI(M), the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, the RJD (both Lalu Prasad and Tejashwi Yadav), the RLD, the Hindustani Awam Morcha, the Peoples Democratic Party, the Nationalist Congress Party, the MDMK, the VCK, the IUML, the KSM and the RSP.

"India faces an economic, social and political crisis. At this time, when the Opposition's voice is being suppressed in Parliament and the media, the Yatra is connecting directly with lakhs of people. We have discussed the grave issues affecting our nation: inflation, unemployment, social divisions, weakening of democratic institutions and the threat on our borders," Kharge wrote.

He said all sections of society have also participated and shared their problems about the youth, women and elderly; farmers, labourers, small businessmen and industrialists; Dalits, Adivasis, and linguistic and religious minorities; activists, artists and spiritual leaders.