Bharat Jodo Yatra: Rahul lands in Chennai

CHENNAI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will visit Tamil Nadu on a four-day tour as a part of his Bharat Jodi yatra. Reaching Chennai on Tuesday night, Rahul Gandhi will start from the city at 6am Wednesday to his father Rajiv Gandhi’s memorial in Sriperumbudur, where he would pay floral tributes to his portrait, take a tour of the memorial and meditate.

Following a rendition by ‘Veenai’ Gayatri, the former Congress president will plant a sapling and share a photo session with the staff at the memorial and family members of other victims of the suicide bomb attack that killed his father in May 1991.

Gandhi will leave for the city after hoisting the party flag at the entrance of the memorial at 8.10am.

The Wayanad MP is scheduled to leave the city for Trivandrum by a 11.40am flight from Chennai airport. From the capital of Kerala, Rahul will travel by road to Kanniyakumari where Chief Minister M K Stalin will launch the Bharat Jodo Yatra around 4pm. The former Congress president will also address a party rally after the launch of the yatra in Kanniyakumari . Rahul is expected to traverse through the nook and cranny of Kanniyakumari district till September 10 before moving to Kerala. Popularly described by the party as unity yatra, Rahul Gandhi has proposed to cover 3,500kms from Kanniyakumari to Kashmir in 150 days. The Congress has planned to raise a host of issues affecting the people, mainly economic inequality, social polarisation and abuse of power by the ruling BJP, especially growing politicisation of independent investigative agencies like CBI and ED besides centralisation of power by the Modi regime. The Congress party hopes to revive its fortunes and lift the sagging morale of the party cadre ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls by upping the ante against the ruling BJP during the yatra.