Akhilesh Yadav to join Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Agra today

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Nyay Yatra will pass from the Aligarh division to the Agra division on Sunday.

The yatra reflects a major political development in the run up to the Lok Sabha election 2024. Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav will be joining the Nyay Yatra for the first time on Sunday.

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi, already a part of Nyay Yatra will also be there in Aligarh and Agra.

The coming together of Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav will be a repeat of a similar scene seven years ago in Agra itself when both Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav covered a 12 km road show in Agra on February 3, 2017.

“The Yatra will resume on February 25 from Jamalpur in Aligarh with a public address at Shamshabad Market Chowk in Aligarh and will reach Gandhi Tiraha in Hathras at noon, with lunch scheduled at Sadabad. It will then resume from Tedi Bagiya in Agra in the afternoon on February 25 and after an address at Tehra in Agra, it will reach Dholpur to enter Rajasthan later in the day,” said Dr Anil Chaudhary, West UP president, Kisan Congress, the farmers’ wing of the Congress.

Interestingly, all four parliamentary seats through which the Yatra will pass on Sunday, namely Aligarh, Hathras (reserved), Agra (reserved) and Fatehpur Sikri, were won by BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. According to the seat-sharing formula, the Congress is to contest Mathura and Fatehpur Sikri parliamentary seats, while the SP will contest Agra, Firozabad, Mainpuri in Agra Division and Aligarh, Hathras and Etah in the Aligarh division.

Incidentally, the belt from the Aligarh division to the Agra division is the same belt where the Khandoli Aaloo (potato), a trusted name is mainly grown.

“The Nyay Yatra on Sunday will certainly provide leaders leading it to have a closer look at the plight of potato farmers in this belt. Uttar Pradesh is a state growing the maximum potatoes in India which as a nation stands as the third largest producer of potato after China and Russia,” said Chaudhary.

“These farmers await proper food processing units in the region despite the fact that the Khandoli Aaloo is a signature brand. Khandoli is village panchayat of Agra district and is known for farmer duo – Chetram and Narain Singh, who, in 1950, brought potato seeds from Patna to be sown here, as the soil here was not good for other crops,” said Dr Chaudhary, the convenor of the Nyay Yatra in Sadabad.

“The region still awaits implementation of promises made to potato farmers who need protection on the pattern of China, where a Potato Board ensures fruitful use of the crop. In India, 35% of the crop gets wasted when it can be good source of starch, a product we import,” he said.