Bharat Jodo Yatra to enter Telangana on October 24

Final route to be finalised on October 4

The Bharat Jodo Yatra of Rahul Gandhi is likely to enter Telangana by October 24 and the final route map will be readied at a meeting to be held on October 4 where senior leaders Jairam Ramesh, Digvijay Singh, and Uttam Kumar Reddy will discuss with the state leaders to finalise the schedule.

TPCC leaders held a meeting on Friday to discuss the yatra programme and later TPCC president A. Revanth Reddy, CLP leader Bhatti Vikramarka and others told a press conference that the yatra will enter Makthal in the combined Mahabubnagar district from Raichur in Karnataka and leave Telangana at Madnoor in Nizamabad district.

He said the party leaders will meet DGP M Mahender Reddy on Saturday to submit Mr. Gandhi’s route map and seek security arrangements to be made. He said students, farmers, and people of various sections are sending requests to meet Mr. Gandhi. The party will form committees to look into the requests to ensure they meet Mr. Gandhi and discuss their issues. For the 14 days Mr. Gandhi will walk in Telangana, Congress leaders are also identifying some historic places where the leader could touch.

Mr. Reddy said the yatra was in the larger cause of uniting the nation and not for getting into power and called upon people to join it irrespective of their political and social ideologies. He appealed to various sections of people like farmers, students, women, minorities, Dalits and girijans to join.

Replying to a question, Mr. Revanth Reddy said the success of Sagara Haram, Million March and Sakala Janula Samme was due to the effort of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) and not because of TRS as claimed by them. The JAC was formed in Congress leader K. Jana Reddy’s house, he reminded.

On Minister K.T. Rama Rao questioning his role in the Telangana movement, Mr. Reddy said one can ask the former Governor Narasimhan and his speech of 54 minutes was in the Assembly records. KTR should verify those records instead of blindly tweeting. He said KTR was not even a Mulki as he studied in Guntur, Pune, and later in the USA. “He would not be eligible for any job in Telangana but is a Cabinet member because of his father.”