LUCKNOW: In a big political move, the Congress party has extended invitation to several leaders, including Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, BSP supremo Mayawati and RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary and also former deputy CM of Uttar Pradesh, Dinesh Sharma to join the Uttar Pradesh leg of its ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra.
While all non-BJP opposition leaders have been invited to join the yatra, Dinesh Sharma has been invited as an educationist and former professor of Lucknow University. However, the political experts witness the Congress move as an attempt to unify the non-BJP parties through the Yatra ahead of the big battle of ballots due in 2024. Currently, Congress, which has reduced nearly to a non-entity in country’s politically most crucial state with just one MP from Congress chief Sonia Gandhi representing Rae Bareli in Lok Sabha — and two MLAs in state assembly, is struggling hard for its revival in UP.
Besides Sharma, Professor Ravikant, teaching Hindi in LU, has also been invited by the Congress party to join the yatra which is likely to enter UP from Loni border of Ghaziabad on January 3. The Yatra, led by former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, will cover three districts Ghaziabad, Baghpat and Shamli before entering Haryana.
Besides Ghaziabad, Rahul Gandhi would lead the yatra in Baghpat on January 4 and Shamli on January 5 when, in the evening, he would leave UP through Kairana in Shamli district to enter Sonipat in Haryana. Rahul Gandhi would cover total 100 km in UP during the yatra.
According to UP Congress spokesperson Ashok Singh, as the people are not allowed to raise their views in the present dispensation, Bharat Jodo Yatra is the only option to decipher people’s minds.