Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray and NCP supremo Sharad Pawar will not join Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, but Sena MLA Aaditya Thackeray and NCP legislator Rohit Pawar will take part in the march in Maharashtra. Both Sena and NCP leaders have confirmed the participation of their young leaders.
While Aaditya is likely to join Rahul on November 11, Rohit will be part of the yatra three days later at Hingoli. Congress leaders said they have asked younger MLAs from across opposition parties to join the yatra. Sharad Pawar won’t join Congress’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, says Jairam Ramesh Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar will not join the Congress’s Bharat Jodo Yatra due to health issues, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said on Thursday. Addressing media persons, Ramesh said Pawar (81) had earlier agreed to participate in the foot march.
Aaditya said Uddhav had asked him to join the march. “The exact dates are being finalised, but we are surely joining the yatra. All the alliance partners the Shiv Sena-NCP and Congress-are seeing that there is a big threat to democracy and the Constitution. It is important to stand together to save democracy and the Constitution,” Aaditya said. The Sena young gun, who is an MLA from Worli, was a cabinet minister in the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in which the Congress and the NCP were partners.
The march, a mass outreach initiative which began on September 7 from Kanyakumari, entered its 61st day on Monday and reached Deglur in the Nanded district from neighbouring Telangana. Rahul addressed a rally in Nanded on November 10 and his second rally will be held on November 18 at Shegaon in the Buldhana district. The Bharat Jodo Yatra will traverse through 15 assemblies and 6 parliamentary constituencies in the state during its 14-day sojourn. It will cover a distance of 382 km across five districts before entering Madhya Pradesh on November 20.
