Pawan Khera and Manish Khanduri
As opposed to the usual 4pm-5pm later afternoon/ evening start, the Bharat Jodo Yatra this day started relatively early, at 2pm when the padyatris commenced their journey from KSRTC Bus stand, Srirangapatna town, Mandya.
Early in the day Congress leader Rahul Gandhi walked with a number of locals. These included Ayub Ahmed, the ‘Messiah of unclaimed bodies’ in Mysuru, who provided last rites to unclaimed bodies, Pa Mallesh, a senior socialist leader and a woman auto driver, Mangala.
Meanwhile at a press conference in the afternoon Congress leader Jairam Ramesh described the Bharat Jodo Yatra as “an endurance test on which we will see many future challenges, but the way in which we have started out in Karnataka leads me to believe that we will overcome all challenges successfully”. He also stated that the “BJP was running scared of the success of the yatra”.
Also announced in the press conference was the launch of a Bharat Jodo Yatra app, which can be used to track and follow the yatra, and watch live video and on ground footage from anywhere.
Later in the day, speaking to a huge crowd, Gandhi reiterated that the #BharatJodoYatra was to combat rising divisiveness, unemployment and prices in India. “Karnataka has perhaps the most corrupt government in the country” he said, calling it government that takes “40 percent as commission”
With an early start of 2pm the yatris arrived at their end point at Pandavapura before 5pm. The yatra will pause for two days on the 4th and the 5th of September, on account of the Dussehra break.
The Bharat Jodo Yatra is presently in the state of Karnataka. Over the next 21 days in the state, it will cover 511 kilometres.
The Bharat Jodo Yatra is a five month, 3500 kilometre long padyatra from Kanyakumari in the South of India to Srinagar in the North. It is part of the party’s national mass outreach program aimed at highlighting social polarisation, economic inequalities and political centralisation.
End of Day Travel Facts
1. Route traveled/ major settlements: Hardinge Circle, Mysuru- Srirangapatna- Pandavapura
2. Current Districts Name – Mysore, Mandya
3. Gandhi ji visited Mysore twice, in 1927 and 1934. His objective was to gather support for the freedom struggle.
4. After Gandhi ji’s assassination in 1948, Sardar Patel himself laid the foundation stone of the memorial of Mahatama Gandhi at Gandhi Square in Mysuru on 24 February 1949
5. Formerly known as Seringapatam, Srirangapatna was the capital of Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan. It gave its name to the the Treaty of Seringapatam between Lord Cornwallis and Tipu Sultan, and was later site of the Battle of Seringapatam, 1799, one of the most notes battles in Indian history
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