Priyanka Gandhi to walk entire 120 km during UP stretch of Bharat Jodo Yatra
The yatra would enter Uttar Pradesh from Ghaziabad on Tuesday. Rahul Gandhi would be accompanied by his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the party general secretary in-charge of the state, during the Uttar Pradesh leg of the Bharat Jodo Yatra
In her first major public interaction in Uttar Pradesh after the 2022 assembly polls, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra would walk the entire 120 kilometres that her brother Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra would travel in the western region of the state, a party leader said on Monday.
The yatra would enter Uttar Pradesh from Ghaziabad on Tuesday. Rahul Gandhi would be accompanied by his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the party general secretary in-charge of the state, during the U.P. leg.
“Priyankaji would walk the entire 120 kilometres that Rahulji’s Bharat Jodo Yatra would cover in the state. The party workers are very excited as the yatra has generated immense enthusiasm among the masses,” former lawmaker and Congress leader Deepak Singh, who too will be part of the U.P. leg of the yatra, said. The yatra would cover 11 assembly constituencies across three districts before it enters Haryana, yet another BJP-ruled state.
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After entering Uttar Pradesh from the Loni border into Ghaziabad on Tuesday, Rahul and Priyanka would travel through Baghpat, touching Kairana along with several other places in Shamli.
Priyanka had played no major part in state politics since the BJP, under chief minister Yogi Adityanath, defied history by returning to power for a successive term in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.
During the polls, Priyanka had led a women-centric campaign with the “ladki hoon, lad sakti hoon (I am a woman and up for a challenge)” motto.
Party workers are hopeful that this yatra would see Priyanka again getting active in U.P. ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Priyanka, along with her mother Sonia Gandhi, had participated in the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Karnataka. She had also been part of the yatra when it entered Delhi. Unlike the U.P. leg, those were brief interludes in Rahul’s yatra.
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Major opposition parties like the SP and the BSP have sent their best wishes for yatra but have decided to keep away from it despite an invite.
The Janata Dal (United), which is running the government in Bihar in alliance with RJD and Congress, would participate during the yatra’s U.P. leg, party leader KC Tyagi confirmed.