Led by senior leader L.K. Advani, the entire top brass of the Bharatiya Janata Party, with the possible exception of party president Nitin Gadkari, will be present on October 13 in Uttar Pradesh, which goes to the polls soon, to flag off the two ‘Jan Swabhiman Yatras' that will originate from Mathura and Varanasi the same day.
The Mathura leg will be led by the former party president, Rajnath Singh, and the one from Varanasi, by the chairman of the election campaign committee, Kalraj Mishra. The first phase of the yatras beginning on October 13 will continue till October 22. The second and final phase will begin on November 9 and end on November 17.
The temple issue, which had apparently been given a pass over by the BJP, is likely to return to its agenda when the two Jan Swabhiman Yatras merge in Ayodhya on November 17 where a ‘vijay sankalp samagam' (resolve for victory meeting) will be held to mark their conclusion.
Mr. Advani, who will begin his Jan Chetna Rath Yatra from Sitab Diara in Chhapra district of Bihar on October 11, will enter U.P. on October 12 and, after a night's halt in Varanasi, will flag off Mr. Kalraj Mishra's Jan Swabhiman Yatra from the Bharat Mata Mandir on October 13. Senior party leader and Varanasi MP Murli Manohar Joshi, BJP vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, the former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Uma Bharti, and the president of the U.P. unit of the party, Surya Pratap Shahi, will be present.
After moving across Varanasi, Sant Ravidas Nagar and Mirzapur districts, Mr. Advani's rath yatra will enter Madhya Pradesh on October 13. It will to return to U.P. on November 18. After passing through Bijnor, Rampur, Moradabad and Ghaziabad districts over the next two days, Mr. Advani will enter Delhi via Ghaziabad on November 20 when his yatra will end.
