THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Under attack from the CPM for Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra spending only two days in the BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, the Congress has reworked the yatra’s itinerary, extending its stay in the key state to five days. The Congress leadership though put up a brave face, saying the yatra was originally scheduled for five days in UP.
The CPM’s official twitter handle on Monday posted a poster with a tag line, ‘strange way to fight BJP-RSS’, and wondering whether the Yatra that spends 18 days in Left-ruled Kerala and two days in BJP-ruled UP was meant to unite India or just Congress’ seats in the southern state. The tweet sent ripples across the political spectrum, prompting the Congress national general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh to retort that the “CPM is the ‘A’ team of BJP in the land of Mundu Modi”.
However, the Congress leadership on Tuesday made it clear that the yatra will be in UP for five days. Jairam Ramesh told TNIE that the yatra was planned for five days in UP from day one and there is no change of plan following the CPM’s jibe.“It was an idiotic tweet by the CPM. They got it wrong which led me to reply that they should have done their homework on how and why the yatra was planned the way it is,” he said.
A Congress source from New Delhi said the yatra schedule for UP was changed from two days to five days even before the CPM’s criticism. The schedule for each state was finalised based on length of the route, topography and the security aspects, said the source.
A source close to Rahul said the Nehru scion shares a good rapport with CPM general secretary Sitram Yechury and must have heeded to the Left leader’s opinion to extend the stay in UP. Rahul would be spending a maximum of 21 days in Karnataka and Rajasthan. Incidentally, both these states are going to polls next year. Then the question arose on why the yatra completely avoided Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and north-eastern states.