Since the Bharat Jodo Yatra began in September last year, the only opposition leaders who have walked with Rahul, who is leading the yatra, are from parties in alliance with the Congress in their respective states.
New Delhi: The heads of 21 “like-minded” political parties have been invited by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to join the concluding ceremony of the party’s 3,550 KM Bharat Jodo Yatra in Srinagar on 30 January.
While individual leaders and MPs had been invited by Rahul Gandhi to join the yatra in the past, the invitation by Kharge, sent out Wednesday, is addressed specifically to heads of parties.
The parties on the list of invitees include Mamta Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC), Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party (SP), Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Communist Party of India (CPI), CPI (Marxist), Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren’s Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and Indian Union Muslim League (IUML).
Both Tejashwi Yadav and his father, former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad, from the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), have been invited. As have Omar and Farooq Abdullah from the National Conference (NC).Former Bihar MP Sharad Yadav has been sent a separate invitation.
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Interestingly, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS, formerly Telangana Rashtra Samithi), and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), have been kept out of the invitation list. Former Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad’s Democratic Azad Party (DAP) has also been left out.
On the other hand, the CPI(M), which leads the Left Democratic Front coalition — the principal opposition to the Congress in Kerala — has been extended an invitation. Other Left parties, like the CPI and Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) have also been invited.
Since the Bharat Jodo Yatra began in September last year, the only opposition leaders who have walked with Rahul, who is leading the yatra, are from parties in alliance with the Congress in their respective states.
These include Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader M.K. Stalin, who flagged off the yatra from his state; and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Supriya Sule’s daughter and Aaditya Thackeray of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), both of whom joined the rally in Maharashtra.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, who was formerly with the Congress, joined the yatra in Delhi, while DMK MP Kanimozhi joined in Haryana.
The only exceptions have been Makkal Needhi Maiam’s (MNM) Kamal Haasan who walked with Rahul in Delhi and National Conference (NC) stalwart and former J&K CM Farooq Abdullah who joined the yatra right before it entered Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh.
Before the yatra entered UP at the start of this month, BSP supremo Mayawati also extended her greetings to the Congress, though she stayed away from the rally.
SP’s Akhilesh Yadav, too, had done the same upon receiving an invitation to join the walkathon. However, his movements seemed to be a U-turn from his previous statement on the yatra where he had said the Congress and rival BJP “are the same”.
Earlier, PDP chief and former J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti had confirmed that she would join the yatra when it passes through the Union territory between 20 and 30 January.
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