Punjab Congress Finalises Bharat Jodo Yatra Arrangements

With Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra set to enter Punjab in early January, the state Congress on Tuesday finalised arrangements for the foot march in a meeting, presided over by senior leader K C Venugopal.

The Yatra is scheduled to enter Punjab in the first week of January. The exact dates will be announced later, said a release issued by the party here. A high-level meeting was held at the PCC headquarters here, which was presided over by the party general secretary K C Venugopal. Secretary in charge for Punjab Harish Chaudhary was also present.

The meeting was attended among others by the Punjab Congress Chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, former Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, Leader of the Opposition in Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Partap Singh Bajwa, former Union Minister Manish Tewari, former Deputy Chief Ministers O P Soni and Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, former Speaker Rana KP Singh, and most of the sitting and former MPs and MLAs of the party from the state. The leaders told Venugopal that all arrangements had been made from grassroots level up as they assured him of "record breaking participation," the party release said.

Warring said there was a lot of enthusiasm among workers to participate in the yatra. The leaders said the Bharat Jodo Yatra had injected a fresh enthusiasm in the rank and file of the party and this will be reflected during the Yatra which is likely to stay in Punjab for about a week. Bharat Jodo Yatra, which began from Kanyakumari on September 7 and will culminate in Kashmir, is being seen as a last-ditch effort of the Congress to rally support for the party and oust BJP from power in next general election. 

It has so far covered Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, and parts of Haryana in the first phase. The Yatra will re-enter Haryana from Panipat in early January before moving to Punjab and then J&K.