THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra entered Kerala to a rousing welcome at Parassala on Sunday, with senior state Congress leaders making a beeline to greet him. However, it was Shashi Tharoor who stole the show with the national media chasing him for a bite all through the course of the Yatra.
Waving tricolour, scores of people including children lined up on both sides of the road as Rahul, clad in a white t-shirt, navy blue pants and sky blue sneakers, reached Parassala at 7:15am after touring Kanyakumari district over the last four days.
State Congress president K Sudhakaran, Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan, senior leaders Oommen Chandy and Ramesh Chennithala, MPs Tharoor, K Muraleedharan, Benny Behanan, M K Raghavan and Kodikunnil Suresh, and national general secretary in charge of Kerala Tariq Anwar were among the leaders who gathered to greet Rahul.
However, it was Tharoor who was the centre of attraction, and he apparently enjoyed the attention. Tharoor later told TNIE that the current focus should be on the Yatra. He said he is happy after the AICC election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry allayed his fears on the lack of transparency in the party’s presidential election. “There are 12 more days left for the Congress presidential election. I will think then on whether I would contest or not,” he said.
Amit Shah rattled by yatra’s success, says Venugopal
Rahul treaded the 14km stretch from Parassala to Ooruttukala in Neyyattinkara, and camped at Madhavi Mandiram, which Mahatma Gandhi had visited on January 14, 1937 during his Kanyakumari visit. It was the house of Dr G Ramachandran, freedom fighter and secretary of Mahatma Gandhi. Jairam Ramesh, Congress national general secretary (communications), lashed out against the BJP Government at Madhavi Mandiram.
“Congress is seeking to flag economic disparities, social polarisation and political centralisation. The BJP and RSS’s ploy is to divide the country. Congress has always believed in unity in diversity. Today, India is being torn apart. Unity is being threatened, so diversity is also threatened. Hence we have launched Bharat Jodo Yatra and it is not aimed at the 2024 Lok Sabha elections,” he said.
Taking a dig at Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Congress national general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal said the padayatra is already a huge success and it has definitely rattled Shah. “Otherwise, why should he pick an issue with Rahul Gandhi’s t-shirt? The BJP wants to derail the padayatra and they are coming up with childish and stupid tactics.
We are not afraid of them,” he said. The day’s second leg of the yatra started from Moonnukallinmoodu and culminated at Nemom. Rahul also visited the memorial of Ayyankali at Vengannur. The duration of Yatra in Kerala has been cut short by one day to 18 days.
Protest against Rahul
T’Puram: Rahul Gandhi’s absence at the launch of the memorials erected in memory of freedom fighter K E Mammen and P Gopinathan Nair at a leading hospital at Neyyattinkara evoked protest from their
relatives. Earlier, there were reports that Rahul will plant trees at the memorial. But when he did not turn up, state Congress president K Sudhakaran offered to plant the trees, which were objected to by the
relatives. Sudhakaran apologised to the organisers and promised them that the memorials will be launched at a later event. MP Shashi Tharoor did not hide his displeasure. He said such gestures would only hamper the trust of Congress supporters.