THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Congress former president Rahul Gandhi has termed Kerala his “second home” on seeing the huge public response to his Bharat Jodo Yatra. As the Kerala leg of the yatra after traversing 540km through eight districts completed on Thursday morning, the Gandhi scion wrote in his Facebook page, “Home is where you get love, and Kerala is home for me. No matter how much affection I give, I always get more in return from the people here...”
Rahul Gandhi has recorded the important developments during his padayatra as part of a plan to write a book on the mission he has undertaken. On Thursday, he and his entourage had to walk only 8km from Marthoma College Junction, Chungathara, Nilambur, before crossing over to Gudalur in Tamil Nadu on his way to Karnataka.
On the eve of the culmination of the yatra in Nilambur, Rahul Gandhi convened a special meeting of the Congress state leaders who had taken part in the walk in the last 18 days. At the meeting at Wandoor, Rahul Gandhi specially congratulated senior Congress MP K Muraleedharan who he termed “Number 1” and UDF convener M M Hassan “Number 2” who walked along with him for the maximum distance.
He posted a video of him interacting with the leaders which revealed how he had continued the arduous walk despite having a knee problem. Rahul Gandhi took out a piece of paper from his trouser pocket and read out a note written by a small girl to him, “With hardship, there has to be eased.” He further added, “I’m thinking of hardship, hardship, hardship and it has to be eased. Somebody (the girl) has now come and helped me in my most difficult time. Every time, I had trouble, somebody from the public or somebody from here (Kerala leaders) came and pulled me out of the trouble.”
Hassan who walked along with him for 11 days recalled how Rahul Gandhi had hugged him and senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala which was a solemn moment before he bade adieu at Vazhimukku.
“When Rahul Gandhi asked us to share our experiences before the camera on the padayatra, the political aspects and the reaction of the people, some of us were shy, but he implored us to speak without any inhibition as it would be edited properly. It was then that we were told that Rahul Gandhi was penning a book on his historical Bharat Jodo Yatra,” Hassan told TNIE.