3,570km, 150 days, no hotel stay: Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra launch today

The Congress will launch its Bharat Jodo Yatra — its first-ever national-level foot march — on Wednesday from Kanyakumari.

The Yatra will be officially launched today by Rahul Gandhi though the foot march will start from tomorrow. The Congress said the yatra has no connection with any election and is only aimed at ‘uniting India’. Congress spokesperson Jairam Ramesh said it will be a “transformational moment” for Indian politics and a decisive moment for the “rejuvenation of the party”. The party recently saw a big-ticket exit as former J&K chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad resigned blaming Rahul Gandhi for the electoral loss of the party and suggesting that the party should have taken up ‘Congress Jodo’ first instead of ‘Bharat Jodo’.

Here are 10 things to know about the Bharat Jodo Yatra:

1. The Yatra will cover 3,570km in 150 days and will end in Jammu and Kashmir.

2. The yatris will not stay at any hotel and will spend the nights at containers. A total of 60 such containers have been arranged. Sleeping beds, toilets and ACs are also fitted in some containers.

3. Owing to security reasons, Rahul Gandhi will be staying in one container, while others will share the containers.

4. The containers will be parked at a new place every day in the shape of a village. The full-time yatris will eat on the road. They will be provided laundry services.

5. Arrangements have been made keeping in view the change in weather that takes place during these 5 months of the Bharat Jodo Yatra

6. The yatris will walk for 6 to 7 hours every day.

7. There will be two batches of yatris — morning and evening. The morning batch will walk from 7am to 10.30am and the evening batch from 3.30pm to 6.30pm. The plan is to walk around 22 to 23 km daily. The evening batch will be elaborate and see mass participation.

8. The oldest member of the Bharat Jodo Yatra is Vijendra Singh Mahlawat, 58, a Congress leader from Rajasthan. The youngest members are 25 — Ajam Jombla and Bem Bai– both are from Arunachal Pradesh. Kanhaiya Kumar, Pawan Khera are also part of Rahul Gandhi’s yatra team. About 30% of Bharat Yatris are women.

9. According to the route map, the Bharat Jodo Yatra will touch these 20 key places: Kanyakumari, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Nilambur, Mysuru, Bellary, Raichur, Vikarabad, Nanded, Jalgaon Jamod, Indore, Kota, Dausa, Alwar, Bulandshahar, Delhi, Ambala, Pathankot, Jammu, Srinagar.

10. The yatra will remain in Kerala for 18 days and in Karnataka for 21 days. The yatris will be in Karnataka when the election to the party president post is held.