India’s grand old party, the Indian National Congress, has announced its plans to undertake the 150-day ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’. The ambitious 3,500-km yatra will start on September 7 from Kanyakumari, the southernmost point on mainland India. The goal of the yatra is to discuss national issues like inflation, unemployment, social tensions and threats to democracy.

“Economically, the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer. Common people are distressed by sky-rocketing inflation and unemployment. Kisans and khet mazdoors are being buried under debt. The assets of our country are being sold to crony capitalists at a huge loss,” the party said in its pamphlet for the yatra.

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“Socially, we are being divided based on caste, religion, food and language. Every day a new conspiracy is hatched to make one Indian fight another. There is a growing sense of insecurity, especially among women,” the Congress alleged.

Here is what we know so far about the rally.

The plan for the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ was first announced earlier in the year during the Udaipur Chintan Shivir, with the initial plan to start the yatra on October 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. However, the plan to launch the yatra was moved ahead by nearly a month seeing the support that the Congress party has been able to drum up in light of the Directorate of Enforcement’s (ED) questioning of interim INC president Sonia Gandhi and former president Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald money laundering case.

Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh and Digvijaya Singh, the party’s chief spokesperson and the chief planner for the yatra, have laid down the plans for the rally. The Yatra will be led by Rahul Gandhi, who will undertake the whole journey on foot. The yatra will start from Gandhi Mandapam in Kanyakumari and will pass through 12 states and two UTs before finally ending in Jammu.

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Among the pitstops is the Sriperumbudur memorial, the site of the assassination of Rajeev Gandhi. Rahul Gandhi will visit Kochi and Palakkad in Kerala, Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, Mysore and Bellary in Karnataka, Alur in Andhra Pradesh, Vikarabad in Telangana, Nanded and Jalgaon Jamod in Maharashtra, Indore and Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh, Kota, Dausa, Alwar in Rajasthan, Bulandshahar in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Ambala in Haryana, Pathankot in Punjab and Jammu.

Along with Rahul Gandhi and Congress leaders, the yatra will see the participation of about 150 civil society organisations and leaders. Other members of the yatra will be Bharat Yatris – those who will be present throughout the journey – Atithi Yatris and Pradesh Yatris – groups of people that will join the yatra at different points.

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“At one point, at least 300 people will be present in the yatra,” said Singh.

The party has already unveiled a logo, tagline, pamphlet and website for the yatra on Tuesday. The slogan for the yatra is “mile kadam, jude vatan” (walk together, unite the country).

(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)