Mumbai:

Congress’s Rahul Gandhi concluded the Bharat Jodo Nyaya Yatra in Mumbai today with some barbs at foes and former friends. While the heavy artillery was reserved for the BJP, a senior leader, thought to be Ashok Chavan, who recently crossed over to the BJP, got some special attention.

Without naming the former Maharashtra Chief Minister and MP, Mr Gandhi hinted that he had crossed over to evade the Central investigation agencies.

“We are fighting with a power. Now the question is, what is that power. The soul of a king lies in the EVMs, ED (Enforcement Directorate), CBI, Income tax,” Mr Gandhi said, addressing a mammoth crowd in Mumbai.

“I don’t want to name names, but a senior leader from this state, left the Congress. Weeping, he told my mother, ‘Sonia-ji, I’m ashamed to say, I do not have the power to fight this people, this force. I do not want to go to jail’,” he added.

The Congress has levelled the “washing machine” allegation against the BJP again after Mr Chavan switched sides last month, shortly after another key leader, Milind Deora.

State Congress chief Nana Patole, with whom he had serious differences, said the reason was mention of the Adarsh scam in a White Paper presented in parliament.

Mr Chavan has three cases pending against him, two of which are linked to the Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society.

Mr Chavan was the revenue minister of the state in 2000, when land in Colaba was allegedly allotted illegally for the Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society.

The veteran leader has ascribed various differences with the Congres as his reason for leaving the party.

Mumbai:

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra will end today in Mumbai with his key allies in attendance, two months after he began the 6,700-km foot march from Manipur.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav will attend the event at Shivaji Park that marks the end of the yatra, a Congress leader said.

Besides, Uddhav Thackeray and his son Aaditya, Sharad Pawar, and Jharkhand Chief Minister Champai Soren are also expected to join the event in a message of opposition unity ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

Former Congress chief and Mr Gandhi’s mother Sonia Gandhi will also be present at the event, said sources, adding she would also meet the Maharashtra alliance leaders earlier in the day.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who reached Mumbai yesterday and joined the yatra, will also attend the event.

“Today ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ is coming to an end. We both are very happy to be here. Rahul Gandhi ji did this journey so that you understand the reality of the country. This entire journey was to make the public aware,” she said.

The east-west Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra was flagged off from Imphal on January 14 and has crossed over 100 Lok Sabha constituencies in 15 states including Assam, West Bengal, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Maharashtra.

The nationwide foot march was announced in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections as a follow-up to the party’s Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kanniyakumari to Kashmir last year. The Congress has credited its assembly election victories in Telangana and Karnataka to the yatra.

New Delhi:

The Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra will culminate in Mumbai on March 17 with a rally to which Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge is inviting INDIA bloc leaders, the party announced on Friday.

Congress General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal said the party is in election mode and on an aggressive campaign path.

“Rahul Gandhi (is) undertaking the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, which is in Gujarat…The yatra will end on March 17 in Mumbai with a mammoth rally. Congress President Kharge is writing to all INDIA bloc partners to invite them to attend that rally,” he said at a press conference in the national capital.

The yatra entered Gujarat from neighbouring Rajasthan on Thursday.

The 6,700-kilometre Manipur-to-Mumbai yatra will pass through seven Gujarat districts — Dahod, Panchmahal, Chhota Udepur, Bharuch, Tapi, Surat and Navsari — before entering Maharashtra at Navagam on the evening of March 10.

The yatra aims to highlight the message of “nyay (justice)” while interacting with common people along the way.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Ahmedabad:

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday said it had accepted the Congress’ invitation to join the ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ led by Rahul Gandhi in Gujarat between March 7 and 10.

In a release, the Gujarat unit of AAP announced that a large number of party workers and leaders will take part in the yatra in the state.

The yatra is scheduled to enter the BJP-ruled state at Jhalod in Dahod district on March 7 and will cover a distance of 467 km before entering neighbouring Maharashtra on March 10.

The 6,700km ‘Manipur to Mumbai’ Yatra, which started on January 14, will pass through seven Gujarat districts with a sizable tribal population and cover 14 of the 26 Lok Sabha seats in the state, Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said.

“Both AAP and Congress are part of the INDIA bloc. Our state president Shaktisinh Gohil talked at length with AAP’s state unit president Isudan Gadhvi (on phone) today and extended our invitation to join Rahul Gandhi’s yatra during its Gujarat leg. AAP has accepted our invitation,” said Doshi.

“A large number of AAP cadres and leaders, including Gadhvi, will join the yatra when it enters Dahod on March 7. AAP will contribute in making this yatra a success in Gujarat. A joint press conference in this regard will be organised in coming days,” the AAP release said.

The yatra will pass through Dahod, Panchmahal, Chhota Udepur, Bharuch, Tapi, Surat and Navsari districts before entering Maharashtra.

Notably, one AAP MLA and three Congress MLAs in Gujarat have resigned and joined the ruling BJP since December last year. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Mumbai:

As the Congress labours through intense seat negotiations with INDIA bloc allies ahead of the national election, Rahul Gandhi dialled Uddhav Thackeray yesterday to discuss the deadlock over eight of Maharashtra’s 48 seats.

Rahul Gandhi, who is in the middle of a Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, reportedly spoke to the Shiv Sena (UBT) leader for an hour.

The Congress, say sources, want to contest three of Mumbai’s six Lok Sabha seats – Mumbai South Central, Mumbai North Central and Mumbai North West. Uddhav Thackeray reportedly wants to contest 18 Lok Sabha seats in the state, including four in Mumbai – Mumbai South, Mumbai North West, Mumbai North East and Mumbai South Central.

For the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance of Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena, Sharad Pawar’s NCP and the Congress, the seat talks are entirely uncharted territory as the parties formed the ideologically mismatched alliance after the last Lok Sabha election in 2019. The three have managed an agreement on nearly 40 seats but negotiators are stuck on eight seats.

The undivided Shiv Sena fought 22 of 48 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and won 18, including three in Mumbai.

Uddhav Thackeray’s party ended its 25-year alliance with the BJP months later, after failing to agree on power-sharing terms following the Maharashtra state polls.

The Maha Vikas Aghadi government collapsed after the Shiv Sena split and Eknath Shinde’s faction formed a new government with the BJP.

Earlier this year, Sharad Pawar’s NCP suffered a similar rupture, with the veteran’s nephew Ajit Pawar joining the Eknath Shinde-BJP coalition government.

The Congress fears a similar exodus after two of its prominent leaders in Maharashtra, former chief minister Ashok Chavan, and Milind Deora, crossed over to the BJP.

The defections have complicated the seat negotiations for the Maharashtra opposition allies.

Sources say Uddhav Thackeray’s party, after the Congress defections, wants a greater share in Mumbai seats.

However, sources assert that Uddhav Thackeray, Sharad Pawar, Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge are all determined to make it work, aware that for each party, it is a battle for survival.

The Congress recently sealed difficult seat sharing deals with Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party.

The party has also redoubled efforts to close a deal with Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who has refused to part with more than five of her state’s 42 seats.