‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ of Bengal Cong resumes from Kolkata

KOLKATA, (PTI): The West Bengal Congress’ ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ reached Kolkata on Monday with the party’s state unit president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury starting a march from Taratala in the southwest part of the city.

The yatra, which has been renamed as ‘Sagar Se Pahar Tak’ in the state, was flagged off by Chowdhury from Ganga Sagar Island in South 24 Parganas district on December 28. Joined by several senior leaders of the party in West Bengal, the long march will pass through important junctions and streets of the city, and may go to Netaji Bhavan at Elgin Road where senior leaders are likely to garland Subhas Chandra Bose’s portrait.

The yatra is also likely to reach the party’s headquarters ‘Bidhan Bhavan’ in central Kolkata and will also visit Swami Vivekananda’s residence on Simla Street in north Kolkata, where party leaders are scheduled to pay tribute to the monk. The march will then move north to the Shyambazar area, a party source said.

The yatra is scheduled to cover around 800 km in different districts of the state and end at Kurseong in north Bengal on January 23, the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.

Besides the main 3,570-km Kanyakumari to Kashmir yatra, a mass contact initiative of the party, the Congress is organising several sub-marches in states from where the main yatra will not pass. The main yatra that started on September 7 has so far covered several states, including Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Telangana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. (PTI)