Now that the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress have finalised
seat-sharing for Uttar Pradesh in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav is set to join the Congress' yatra in Agra on Sunday. The final leg of the foot march began from Jamalpur in Aligarh on Sunday with the party's general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in attendance.
Yadav confirmed his participation last Thursday after the INDIA bloc allies reached a consensus on seat-sharing. "We will attend the yatra (Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra). Soon their (Congress) programme will be held in Agra, and I will attend it…," Yadav said.
As per the agreement reached between the two parties, Congress will get to contest 17 seats in Uttar Pradesh, while the Samajwadi Party has kept the remaining 63 seats for itself.
At Jamalpur, Lok Dal workers joined the yatra.
During the public rally, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra hit out at the BJP for the unemployment in the country. "The BJP is in power for 10 years. Many big events such as the G20 Summit took place and everyone said the respect for India increased due to such events. Even, we agree. But, is the respect of the country not connected with the young, our policemen, and students? There are no jobs for the youth, farmers are still sitting on roads, and inflation is a burden for the people of the country," she added.
Rahul also took the opportunity to highlight "the plight of OBCs and Dalits in the country. "The 90% (minorities, OBC, Adivasis, Dalits) have only 7% participation in the central budget. Just 62 officers control the Uttar Pradesh budget. Among these 62 officers, OBC has just 4% participation who are 55% here in the state, Dalit has only 6% participation," Rahul said.
The final leg of Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra of Rahul Gandhi resumed on Saturday. Priyanka Gandhi was to participate in the yatra when it entered Uttar Pradesh in Chandauli but could not do so because of ill health and subsequent hospitalisation.
The yatra on Sunday will halt at Rajasthan's Dholpur.
Meanwhile, the Congress had said February 26 to March 1 will be break days for the yatra as Rahul Gandhi is set to fly to the UK to deliver two lectures at his alma mater Cambridge University on February 27 and February 28. He will be also attending important meetings in New Delhi during this period.
The yatra will resume from Dholpur at 2 pm on March 2. It will then move into Madhya Pradesh and cover Morena, Gwalior, Shivpuri, Guna, Shajapur and Ujjain among other districts of the state.
