Chennai:
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, who is set to launch the party’s Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kanyakumari today, visited his father and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s memorial in Tamil Nadu’s Sriperumbudur.

1. Rahul Gandhi will attend an event at the Mahatma Gandhi Mandapam in Kanyakumari where Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin will hand over a Khadi national flag to him for the launch of ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra, party sources said.

2. The 3,500 kilometer-long yatra, dubbed by the Congress as the longest march organised in the country over the last century, will be launched at around 5 pm with a rally, and the ‘padyatra’ or foot march will begin on Thursday morning. 

3. Led by Rahul Gandhi, thousands of Congress workers and leaders will walk around six-seven hours every day to cover 12 states and two union territories over the next 150 days. All state unit presidents and Congress Legislature Party leaders would hold the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ in their respective states, the party said in a statement. 

4. The Congress said Rahul Gandhi will walk all the way from Kashmir to Kanyakumari – where the yatra will conclude. Claiming a rise in social polarisation and political centralisation in India, Rahul Gandhi had earlier said that the yatra is like a ‘tapasya’ to him to unite the country.

5. The Congress says the yatra is party’s biggest ever ‘Jan Samparka programme’ during which they will try to connect with the common people.