Congress leader Rahul Gandhi abruptly halted his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra on 17th February in Varanasi and left for his Lok Sabha constituency Wayanad in the southern state of Kerala. Veteran Congress leader and party’s general secretary in charge of communications, Jairam Ramesh informed about the development and stated that the presence of the former party president was “required urgently” in Wayanad, in a social media post. He added that the yatra will resume on 18th February in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj.
वायनाड में @RahulGandhi की उपस्थिति की तत्काल आवश्यकता है। वह आज शाम 5 बजे वाराणसी से प्रस्थान कर रहे हैं। भारत जोड़ो न्याय यात्रा कल 18 फरवरी को दोपहर 3 बजे प्रयागराज में फिर से शुरू होगी।
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) February 17, 2024
Rahul Gandhi’s presence is required urgently in Wayanad. He is leaving this evening from…
The Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra is reported to resume at Prayagraj on 18th February at 3 pm. Notably, Rahul Gandhi had earlier cancelled the second stage of his yatra in Jharkhand, which was scheduled to start on 14th February and rushed to the national capital to participate in the farmers’ protest. The second leg of the Congress’s alleged nationwide outreach movement the “Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra” which aims to travel from Manipur to Mumbai under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi, arrived in Varanasi on the second day of its Uttar Pradesh phase which began on the 16th February.
It was scheduled to traverse through the state from 16th to 21st February and then again from 24th to 25th February. The Congress reported that the 22nd and 23rd of February were going to be rest days of the yatra. Congress secretary Rajesh Tiwari declared that the yatra would proceed as scheduled, moving from Bhadohi to Prayagraj, even though Rahul Gandhi is not present in the town.
Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party leader and IT cell head Amit Malviya asserted that there is an “irreconcilable rift” over the party’s control between Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. “Everyone needs to look after their health. Priyanka Vadra was absent from Yatra 2.0 from the beginning, and she won’t be present even now when Rahul’s Yatra has reached Uttar Pradesh. It has become widely recognized that there is an unbridgeable divide between the brother and sister over who owns the party,” he commented after Priyanka Vadra informed that she couldn’t be a part of the yatra in Uttar Pradesh because she was hospitalised and will join her brother later.
Rahul Gandhi’s present trip to Wayanad occurred one day after a man named Paul passed away during the day at the Kozhikode Medical College. He was gravely hurt in another wild elephant assault on the 15th of February morning. According to a Forest official, the deceased was an eco-tourism guide employed by the Forest department and stationed at the popular tourist spot known as Kuruva Island.
The ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF), the opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Wayanad called a district-wide hartal to seek lasting solutions to the human-animal conflicts in the area. Businesses and retail stores stayed closed and automobiles skipped the district’s roadways. Locals also protested with the dead body of the victim who was trampled to death by a wild animal.
At Pulpally, the demonstration descended into violence as agitators set fire to a forest department vehicle and placed a dead cow from a reported tiger attack on top of it. Massive protests in Wayanad were sparked last week after an elephant in the Mananthavady part of the district crushed 42-year-old Aji to death.
