Lucknow: Rahul Gandhi is set to visit the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi as part of his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra. He will also visit Amethi, in what will be his first visit to a place that was once considered the Gandhi family bastion, after the drubbing faced by the Congress in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.
Union Minister Smriti Irani handed the former Congress president a defeat from this seat in the 2019 elections, bagging over 55,000 more votes.
The six-day UP leg of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra began Friday with it entering Chandauli after the completion of its Bihar leg.
After the official flag handover ceremony and a public address in Chandauli’s Naubatpur, Rahul will leave for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency Varanasi Saturday where he is set to address two public meetings.
Rahul will visit the Kashi Vishwanath temple where he will offer prayers to the deity Lord Vishwanath before his public meeting at the Godowlia chauraha in the heart of the city. The Congress leader had last visited the temple on 4 March 2022 along with his sister Priyanka Gandhi. The siblings had offered prayers to the deity, days before polling took place in Varanasi.
After the yatra crosses the Manduadih chauraha, Kurauna and Indira Mill chauraha, he will address another public meeting at the Rajpura chauraha before a night halt in the temple city.
From here, Rahul’s yatra will proceed for the Bhadohi leg on Sunday.
Priyanka ill, won’t join brother
While party leaders had earlier said that Priyanka Gandhi will join her brother during the UP leg of the yatra, the former made it clear Friday that she would not, owing to health reasons.
In a tweet, the former UP in-charge said that while she had been eagerly waiting for the yatra to enter UP, she was getting hospitalized on Friday.
I was really looking forward to receiving the BJNY in UP today but unfortunately, have ended up admitted to hospital. I will be there as soon as I am better! Meanwhile wishing all the yatris, my colleagues in UP who have worked hard towards making arrangements for the yatra and…
— Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) February 16, 2024
Rahul Gandhi is however getting support from at least two leaders who are unhappy with the Samajwadi Party (SP), which is currently an ally of Congress as part of the INDIA alliance.
Speaking to ThePrint, Sirathu MLA and Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) leader Pallavi Patel confirmed that she will join Rahul Gandhi’s yatra in Varanasi Saturday.
Hitting out at the SP for the nomination of veteran actress Jaya Bachchan and former UP chief secretary Alok Ranjan for the Rajya Sabha elections, Patel termed it a “fraud that she won’t be a part of”. Patel alleged that they were not a part of the ‘PDA’ (Pichde, Dalit, Alpsankhyak) group that the SP has been eyeing ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
Swami Prasad Maurya, who resigned as SP general secretary earlier this week, is also expected to join Rahul’s yatra in Prayagraj Sunday, an aide of his told ThePrint.
Maurya had resigned from the post alleging discrimination, and has been facing flak from several SP leaders over controversial comments made by him in the past on Hindu temples and religious scriptures.
Rahul’s first visit to Amethi after 2022 drubbing
Amid speculation that he may contest from Amethi again, Rahul is set to visit the constituency on 19 February.
After a welcome at the Sagra Tiraha Monday, Rahul will address a public meeting at Babuganj before the yatra halts at Amethi’s Tendua area.
Soon after his defeat to Smriti Irani in 2019, the Congress leader had visited Amethi, where he met party office-bearers and also paid condolences to the family of his party’s Tiloi assembly in-charge Mata Prasad Vaish, whose relative had died in June 2019.
Rahul along with his sister Priyanka, had also visited Amethi in December 2021 ahead of the UP assembly polls and taken out a padyatra from Jagdishpur to Harimau village where he had addressed a public meeting.
Later, both siblings campaigned for the party’s candidate in Jagdishpur assembly constituency in February 2022 during the state assembly elections.
Speaking to ThePrint, Pradeep Singhal, Amethi district president for the Congress told ThePrint that Rahul Gandhi had visited Amethi soon after the loss in May 2019.
“He had visited a party office-bearer and paid condolences over the demise of the latter’s relative. He had also visited the constituency in the run-up to the state assembly polls and once for campaigning for the party candidate Vijay Pasi. This is possibly his fourth or fifth visit since May 2019,” he said.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)