As Rahul Gandhi-led Congress’ Bharat Jodo Yatra (BJY) entered Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday, support for the yatra continued from the temple town of Ayodhya.
Champat Rai, general secretary of Sri Ram Janmabhoomi Tirath Kshetra Trust, while extending his wishes to the Congress leader said “Rahul’s walk should be praised.”
Calling Rahul Gandhi the ‘young man who is walking on foot for the country’, Champat said, “I appreciate his move. There is nothing wrong in it. No one can be against Bharat Jodo Yatra.”
“I am a worker of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the RSS never condemned Bharat Jodo Yatra,” Rai told media persons in Ayodhya on Tuesday.
Govind Dev Giri, treasurer, also welcomed the Rahul in Uttar Pradesh. “Bharat Jodo Yatra was a good slogan and the country must remain united. I pray to lord Ram to bless him (Rahul Gandhi),” he said.
A day before the yatra entered Uttar Pradesh, Ram temple chief priest Acharya Satyendra Das wished Rahul success in the yatra, good health and long life.
On Monday, Das handed over a letter to the local Congress leader of Ayodhya Gaurav Tewari extending support for the yatra.
“Whatever work you are doing for the country is for the benefit of all. My blessings are with you. Lord Ram’s blessings be with you (Rahul Gandhi),” Das wrote in the letter.
Meanwhile, senior leaders of the UP government, including deputy chief ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak and finance minister Suresh Kumar Khanna on Tuesday attacked Rahul Gandhi over his UP leg of BJY.
BJP leaders said that Rahul has spared just three days for a big state like UP because he is aware of his party’s “poor prospects” in the state.
The yatra entered UP from New Delhi through the Loni border in Ghaziabad on Tuesday. After entering UP in the afternoon, the yatra made its first stoppage at Mawikalan village of Baghpat district on Tuesday night.
On Tuesday, the yatra was joined by former chief of the Research and Analysis Wing (RA&W) AS Dulat and Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi in Uttar Pradesh. Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi too joined on Tuesday and will be accompanying Rahul in the UP leg of the yatra.
The yatra will cover Uttar Pradesh in three days and re-enter Haryana on January 6. The yatra will reach Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district on January 20 and conclude in Srinagar on January 30.
From there, on January 11, the yatra will enter Punjab and travel across Himachal Pradesh on January 19 before finally entering Jammu and Kashmir on the evening of January 20.
The Rahul Gandhi-led walkathon has covered 3,122 kilometres from Kanyakumari to the Red Fort in Delhi so far. Over the span of 108 days, the yatra has crossed 49 districts in nine states and one Union Territory.