LUCKNOW: A day after Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya asked the Congress party either to stop or suspend its ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra or follow COVID protocol during it, senior party leader Salman Khurshid vehemently refused to stop the yatra.
Khurshid , who is the chairman of the Yatra Coordination committee in UP, said on Thursday that Congress would follow all COVID-related guidelines but the Bharat Jodo Yatra would not be stopped.
“The Congress will take all the precautions related to the Covid protocol, but the yatra will not stop,” Khurshid said here while interacting with the media persons.
While responding to a query over the impact on Yatra in the wake of Centre’s advisory, the former Union Minister said that in a democratic set up every individual and party had the right to speak their mind.
He claimed that the Centre’s advisory to stop Bharat Jodo Yatra on the pretext of Covid scare was a reflection of Union government’s fear due to the success of the march across the country.
“The Centre is scared of this yatra, so orders and letters are being issued,” he maintained.
Khurshid said that the Yatra, led by former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, would enter Uttar Pradesh from the Loni border of Ghaziabad on January 3.
However, the insiders in Congress party claimed that after entering the state on January 3, Rahul Gandhi will take out Yatra in three districts of western UP.
Besides Ghaziabad, he 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. “There is a strong possibility of Rahul Gandhi marching in UP on January 6 as well. We are charting the course and final decision would be taken by December 25,” said Naseemuddin Siddiqui, the western zonal head of the party. Meanwhile, Congress’s UP unit is already taking out state-level yatras in six divisions cover 2,200 km till Thursday.
The zonal heads have been made incharge of each of these yatras — Nasimuddin Siddiqui for the western zone, Yogesh Dixit for Braj region, Nakul Dubey for Awadh region, Anil Yadav for Kanpur and Bundelkhand region, Virendra Chaudhary for Purvanchal and Ajai Rai for Prayagraj.