Congress' latest worry in Kerala: Rahul's Bharat Yatra may clash with Onam

KPCC president K Sudhakaran welcomes Rahul Gandhi at Kannur airport. File photo

The Congress recently announced that it is planning to prepone its 'Bharat Jodo Yatra', originally slated to begin on October 2. Former Congress president and Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi will be leading the country-wide foot-march as a grand run-up to the Lok Sabha polls due early 2024.

However, the proposal to advance the schedule of the march has come to trouble the party's Kerala unit. The proposal, discussed at a recent meeting, is to commence the march in the beginning of September itself. If it happens, then the march schedule could clash with the Onam celebrations in the state. 

Party state leadership rightly fears that it would be difficult to organise the march amid the Onam rush. The Onam celebrations will be held in the second week of September with Thiruvonam, the most important day of the celebrations falling on September 8 (Thursday) this year. 

Gandhi's Yatra is scheduled to begin from Kanyakumari on the southernmost tip of the country and culminate in Kashmir. 

“As per the schedule, Rahul Gandhi will be touring Kanyakumari on the first three days and is supposed to enter Kerala on the fourth day. If it takes place in early September, it would clash with Onam celebrations here. Hence, we are trying to avoid such a situation,” a top Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee leader told Onmanorama. The PCC leader said the itinerary of the Yatra has already been finalised. 

He said the party's state unit wants the central leadership to begin the march only after Onam. The state leaders will discuss the issue with senior leader Digvijaya Singh when he arrives in Kerala to attend the party's state-level Chinthan Shivir brainstorming session. The programme is scheduled to take place in Kozhikode on July 23. 

Singh, the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister, is in charge of the Bharat Jodo Yatra. He had recently announced that the party was exploring the possibility of preponing the Yatra “given the repeated and intensifying attacks on our democracy, our country's Constitution, the nation's institutions and the social fabric of our society by the Modi government and the BJP”.

The PCCs have been asked to convey their preparedness for the grand event.

The 'Bharat Jodo (Unite India) Yatra' will cover a distance of around 3,500 km and go through about 12 states and two Union territories, the party said in a statement, noting that it will be a 'padayatra' throughout. 

"The entire leadership and cadre of the Congress will participate in the Yatra. Many other Yatras will join the main 'padayatra' from across the length and breadth of the country. The specific details of the Yatra's route will be announced shortly," Singh said.

The Congress also appealed to like-minded political parties, civil society groups, business and professional associations, and all Indians to unite and join the Yatra.

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