Sundargarh: Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ entered Odisha at Biramitrapur in Sundargarh district from Jharkhand this afternoon. He was given a rousing welcome by Congress supporters and all the top leaders of the party.
Just after entering Odisha, on the Odisha-Jharkhand border Rahul held an impromptu meeting on a stage created for the purpose. It was held near Pattalkanah, 2 km away from Biramitrapur.
Addressing the gathering, Shri Gandhi said, “I am here to stay for three days, and am here to listen to the people of Odisha. For that I have kept aside time to listen and talk to them.”
Shri Gandhi said he has been listening to the people for seven to eight hours during the Yatra and addressing them for 15 minutes every day. He said that he started the Yatra in order to seek justice for the people.
The first edition of the Bharat Jodo Yatra covered about 4,000 km from Kanyakumari to Kashmir in 2022-23 to unite the country, Gandhi said, adding that it was against “hatred and injustice”.
“However, people from other states like Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal and the Northeast told me that their states were not covered by that Yatra,” Shri Gandhi said.
The Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra from Manipur to Mumbai was organised following the request of the people of those states, he said.
The senior Congress leader said the Nyay Yatra seeks justice for the unemployed, tribals, women, Dalits and youths.
“On the way to Odisha, I met a man in Jharkhand who has a land issue. That has been resolved after my intervention,” Shri Gandhi told the gathering.
He said that during the Yatra he had also encountered certain complaints from people like corporate bodies taking land from farmers.
“Nafrat ki bazaar me mohabbat ki dukan khulne aya hnu (Want to open the shop of love in the market of hatred),” Rahul said in his brief speech.
With him on the stage were all the top leaders like PCC Chief Sarat Pattnaik, Sura Routray, Tara Prasad Bahinipati, AICC general secretary Dr Ajoy Kumar and others of the party.
Rahul will stay at Rambahal, near Birmitrapur tonight. And tomorrow he will enter Rourkela through the new bridge on River Brahmani and will hold a road show near Panposh Chowk after a road show starting from Uditnagar.
