Bhopal: The ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra (BJY) led by former Congress president Rahul Gandhi will enter Madhya Pradesh today. For the first time, party leader Priyanka Gandhi will join the Yatra after its inception.
Rahul will perform a puja at Mahakal temple in Ujjain on November 26 and address a mega public rally there the same day.
"Rahul will be paying a visit to Bhagwan Mahakal and will perform a puja on November 26 during the yatra's tour in MP. The BJY will enter the state on November 23 from Burhanpur district and it will exit Madhya Pradesh from Agar Malwa district to Rajasthan on December 4," Congress MLA and former Minister PC Sharma, who is in charge of the Yatra in the state told Millennium Post.
"Gandhi will visit the Ambedkar memorial in Mhow, the birthplace of Dr BR Ambedkar, on Constitution Day on November 26. He will also perform puja at Omkareshwar Jyotirlinga in Khandwa district on November 25 and pay a visit to the holy river Narmada there," Sharma said. He added that party leader Priyanka Gandhi would participate in the yatra for the first time and would be walking on foot with her elder brother, party leaders and workers in MP for three days.
Political experts are considering that MP Congress is going forward towards soft Hindutva keeping an eye on the next year's state Assembly elections. Rahul's visit to the Jyotirlingas, Mahakal and Omkareshwar may be a part of this agenda while its opponent BJP has been carrying forward the hardline Hindutva since it came to power in 2020, they said. Congress state president and former chief minister Kamal Nath claimed that he had first allocated Rs 300 crore for the Mahakal corridor in his tenure. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the first phase of Mahakal Lok redeveloped by the CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP's state government on October 11.
Ensuring the fool proof security of Gandhi and Nath, MP Home minister Narottam Mishra has said that the government is responsible to provide full security to the Yatra in the state. Ahead of the yatra's entry into the state, an anonymous letter was reportedly received on November 18 by an Indore-based sweet shop owner, threatening to assassinate Wayanad MP Gandhi and PCC chief Nath.