Congress plans new march, this time from east to west

The Congress is considering a Pasighat-to-Porbandar yatra, party general secretary Jairam Ramesh said on Sunday after Rahul Gandhi called for taking the "tapasya" of the Bharat Jodo Yatra forward.

Ramesh asserted that there was a lot of enthusiasm and energy among party workers for another yatra after the nearly 4,000-km Kanyakumari-to-Kashmir journey that was undertaken by Gandhi and scores of Congress persons from September last year to January this year.

Ramesh told PTI that an east-to-west yatra, probably from Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh to Porbandar in Gujarat, was being considered but its format could be a bit different from the Bharat Jodo Yatra.

"There is a lot of enthusiasm and energy. I also think personally it is needed but the format of the east-to-west yatra may turn out to be different from the format of the south-to-north Bharat Jodo Yatra," Ramesh said. It may not have such an elaborate infrastructure that was mobilised for the Bharat Jodo Yatra and may have less yatris, he said. He said it would largely be a padayatra but there are jungles and rivers on this route.

"It would be a multi-modal yatra, but mostly it would be a padayatra," Ramesh said. He said that with elections in Karnataka in April, rains from June and again state polls in November, the yatra may have to be undertaken before June or before November. Ramesh also added that the yatra would be of a shorter duration than the Bharat Jodo Yatra. He said all this will be decided in the next few weeks.

Addressing the Congress plenary session, Gandhi said the party should formulate a new plan to carry forward the "tapasya" undertaken through the Bharat Jodo Yatra and that he along with the entire country will participate in it, indicating another such initiative.