JAIPUR: Former Congress President Sonia Gandhi will march with her son on her birthday on December 9. She will be joined by her daughter Priyanka Gandhi and other family members at the Kota-leg of the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra.
The Yatra will enter the state capital Rajasthan from Jhalawar on December 4. Jhalawar is considered the bastion of former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje. The march will then reach Kota, the parliamentary segment represented by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.
Ravindra Tyagi, the President of Kota City Congress Committee and Kota Convenor of this Yatra, said that “Sonia Gandhi's program has been fixed. The party has started preparations for it. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, former PCC Chief Sachin Pilot and many other leaders including current PCC Chief Govind Singh Dotasara will also be camping in Kota division during this period.
Congress leaders say that on December 9, Rahul Gandhi's journey will start from Kota RTO (Regional Transport Office). Sonia Gandhi will accompany her son for a while.
Earlier, Sonia Gandhi had joined the yatra in Mandya in Karnataka.
The relevance of Sonia Gandhi's presence in Rajasthan would be that it's a Congress-ruled state where Assembly elections are due in December next year. The bitter feud between Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot, though for now patched up, is another reason that all eyes will be on the yatra in Rajasthan.
With the mediation of Congress General Secretary Organization KC Venugopal, the ongoing tussle between Gehlot and former Deputy CM Pilot has been buried for the timebeing.
Pilot has released a video inviting the people of Rajasthan to join the Bharat Jodo Yatra. In this video, he is seen running with children wearing Bharat Jodo Yatra T-shirts. It can be seen in the video that where they stop, there is a poster of Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra. Standing under this big hoarding, Sachin Pilot gives the message, “the whole of Rajasthan is joining Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra, are you coming?”
The Yatra will cover a total of 521 km distance in Rajasthan.