Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra trimmed in Bengal, ‘low-key’ Congress event on Mamata turf

After a two-day break, the rally will resume from Jalpaiguri at 2pm on January 28, says Jairam Ramesh

A welcome gate put up for Rahul Gandhi’s roadshow in Siliguri on Saturday. : Passang Yolmo

Avijit Sinha, TT, Siliguri, 28.01.24 : Rahul Gandhi will resume his Bhara Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Bengal from Sunday but will skip many locations stated in the initial itinerary, the shortened schedule reportedly an attempt by the Congress to keep the Yatra a low-key affair in Bengal and mollify Mamata Banerjee, who has already expressed her displeasure at not being properly informed about its Bengal leg.

“After a two-day break, the Yatra will resume from Jalpaiguri at 2pm on January 28. Then we will go to Siliguri where Rahul Gandhi-ji will speak at a public meeting after walking a distance... We will stay in North Dinajpur on Sunday night and will be in Bihar over the next two days,” said Jairam Ramesh, the AICC general secretary (communications), in Delhi on Saturday.

Ramesh, while interacting with the newspersons, said the Yatra would again enter Bengal on January 31 and would reach Jharkhand only after covering Malda, Murshidabad and Birbhum districts.

The Yatra in Bengal, unlike the Northeast leg, has so far been quite low-key. Rahul spent barely one-and-a-half hours in the state after entering it from Assam on Thursday, and then left for Delhi.

“He didn’t walk in Cooch Behar town but just moved in his bus. Also, he didn’t head for Falakata, in Alipurduar district, and left for Delhi via Hasimara (in Alipurduar) on the same day,” said a Congress leader in Cooch Behar, before adding that the actual plan of the yatra in the state was much more elaborate.

While some Congress workers are upset with the truncated Yatra in Bengal, others said the move was rational in the backdrop of Mamata’s recent comments expressing her displeasure at not being informed about the Yatra despite being a member of INDIA. She went on to add that she was ready to take on the BJP alone in Bengal.

At a time when the sudden political developments in Bihar have come as a shock, the Congress cannot afford to open up another front of tension in Bengal, said a source, explaining how Ramesh and party president Mallikarjun Kharge were apparently trying their best to placate Mamata.

“It is evident that the Congress is keen to placate Mamata. Hence, on one hand, the AICC leaders are coming up with reconciliatory statements and reaching out to the Bengal chief minister, on the other hand, the Yatra’s route is getting trimmed to prove that the Congress is not willing to take on Trinamul,” said the source.

Multiple sources in the Congress said that Trinamul’s reservations about the Yatra prompted the Grand Old Party to make it a bare-minimum affair in Bengal.

“Although Rahul was to resume the Yatra from Falakata on Sunday and reach Jalpaiguri via Dhupguri and Maynaguri, it has now been decided that he will start from Jalpaiguri.” the source said.

“This means that Rahul will not cover Alipurduar and will move through only a small part of Jalpaiguri,” the Congress source added.

In Jalpaiguri and Siliguri, Rahul is likely to walk in a couple of stretches and then head for Sonapur, in North Dinajpur district, where he will spend the night.

Senior Congress leaders have claimed Rahul would speak at a public meeting in Siliguri but it is unlikely that there would be a formal meeting. “He may address the crowd from his bus,” a source said.

Although some state Congress leaders have compared Bengal with the BJP-ruled Assam, which “put up roadblocks to derail the Yatra”, central leaders haven’t made such charges.

Courtesy & source- The Telegraph