Rourkela: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi Tuesday called upon the people of Odisha to come forward with their issues which he will try to resolve.
Led by Gandhi, the ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ entered Odisha’s Biramitrapur in Sundargarh district from Jharkhand during the day. Gandhi was given a grand welcome by Odisha Congress leaders.
Addressing a gathering, Gandhi said he has been listening to the people for seven to eight hours during the Yatra and addressing them for 15 minutes every day. He said that he started the Yatra in order to seek justice for the people.
The first edition of the Bharat Jodo Yatra covered about 4,000 km from Kanyakumari to Kashmir in 2022-23 to unite the country, Gandhi said adding that it was against “hatred and injustice”. It was a success as millions of people participated in the yatra, he added.
“However, people from other states like Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal and the Northeast told me that their states were not covered in that Yatra,” Gandhi said. He further claimed that the BJP and RSS are spreading hate and injustice in these states too.
The Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra from Manipur to Mumbai was organised following the request of the people of those states, Gandhi said.
The senior Congress leader said the Nyay Yatra seeks justice for the unemployed, tribals, women, dalits and youths.
“On the way to Odisha, I met a man in Jharkhand who has a land issue. That has been resolved after my intervention,” Gandhi told the gathering.
He further said that during the yatra peoples also complained that certain corporate bodies are taking land of farmers.
“Nafrat ki bazaar me mohabbat ki dukan khulne aya hnu (Want to open the shop of love in the market of hatred),” Rahul said in his brief speech.
On his arrival, Rahul Gandhi was given a reception by the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) members including its president Sarat Pattanayak and other senior leaders. The OPCC also took the Yatra flag from its Jharkhand counterpart.
PTI