The Samajwadi Party (SP) on Tuesday confirmed the participation of party president Akhilesh Yadav in the Congress party’s Bharat Jodo Nyaya Yatra in Amethi or Raebareli, when the yatra reaches Uttar Pradesh.
“Our national president Akhilesh Yadav received an invitation from Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge to join the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra of Rahul Gandhi. Mr. Yadav, while congratulating the Congress, accepted the invitation for the Yatra which will enter U.P. on February 16 and likely to participate when it reaches Amethi or Raebareli,” a statement from the SP read.
In U.P., the yatra will join hands with the social justice movement and the SP’s PDA (pichda or backward classes, Dalit, and alpsankhyak or minorities) plank.
Mr. Yadav had earlier said that he had not received an invitation for the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, with the Congress promptly responding that the yatra’s programme in U.P. would be shared with the INDIA bloc constituents after it was finalised, and that their participation would strengthen the alliance. “The problem is that many big events take place, but we don’t get an inviation,” Mr. Yadav had said last week.
“The detailed route of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in U.P. is being prepared and will be finalised in a day or two. After this, it will be shared with the constituent parties of the INDIA bloc in the State. Their participation in the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra will further strengthen the INDIA bloc,” Jairam Ramesh, Congress general secretary and communications in-charge, said.
