Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra: Know its route and agenda

The Congress leaders added the Manipur government has denied permission to start the yatra from the Palace grounds in Imphal.

The party leaders went on to add that they are determined to begin the march from the northeastern state and have sought permission for another location in the city.

“The yatra will start from Manipur at any cost. We are going ahead with the programme...We don't want to politicise it. We don't want to make any issues in Manipur also. This is a peaceful demonstration which we are doing... We are ready to cooperate with the government, on whatever level we can do. But we are very sure that we will start the Yatra from Manipur itself,” ANI quoted Venugopal as saying.

Set to begin on Sunday (January 14), the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra is expected to cover 6,713 kilometres and the participants will travel on buses and foot. It will cover as many as 110 districts, 100 Lok Sabha seats and 337 Assembly segments in 66 days. It will culminate in Mumbai on March 20.

 

The yatra is being organised ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Manipur witnessed ethnic violence in May last year. Recently, police and militants exchanged fire in Moreh along the India-Myanmar border.

In an interview with NDTV, Chief Minister N Biren Singh said that the nature of the violence has now shifted from clashes between two communities to attacks by insurgents on security forces. “During these past eight months, unwanted incidents took place on some days, not for the whole eight months. Three/four months were peaceful and silent. The violence during the New Year was between the state security forces and militants, not between two communities. Now, the dimension of the conflict has changed to state forces fighting against militants,” Singh said.

Around 175 people have died and thousands have been internally displaced by the violence.