Cong aiming 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' a relaunching pad for Rahul

New Delhi: As the Congress is all set to kick-start its politically ambitious 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' from Wednesday, the party leaders have pulled up their socks to make it a grand success as they hopes that 35,000-km-long yatra may lift their fortune and help them in winning the political race against the ruling BJP.

With a travelling plan of over 35,000 km from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, the Congress is aiming to make it a relaunching pad for Rahul Gandhi.

However, the party leaders have maintained that the prime objective behind launch of 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' is to project the Congress as the only party that can be the thread to bring the nation together.

The challenging part of this yatra is that the presidential polls of the Congress party and assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh may cast a shadow on the yatra, which is scheduled to begin from Kanyakumari on Wednesday evening.

As per senior party leaders, there is not going to be any problem as Congress has made facilities to ensure that those who would cast their votes in the polls, they may go to Bengaluru and do so as it's expected that the polls will be around when the yatra reaches Karnataka.

Going by the route map of the yatra, the Congress has tried to play it safe as the yatra is largely passing through a safe area.

In Congress-ruled Rajasthan, the yatra would go through three places, while in Haryana, the yatra would traverse through Ambala only. Also, in its first leg, the yatra skipped Odisha and Northeast that indicates that party leaders tried to make it safe.

Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to begin his yatra from Sriperumbudur – the place where his father Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated and a memorial stands. As per party leaders, Rahul Gandhi will spend the night with his core team in mobile containers and all food to be cooked locally.

Senior party leaders like Digvijaya Singh are likely to be with him for the entire stretch of the yatra along with a list of 117 volunteers who are party leaders. In between the yatra, Rahul Gandhi would take a break to campaign for the poll-bound states – Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat.