The Congress on Saturday said that the ongoing 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' was not an exercise to project its leader Rahul Gandhi as a prime ministerial candidate for the 2024 general elections.
The statement assumes significance since Congressmen including those like senior leaders Kamal Nath have gone public asserting that Rahul will be the Opposition face for the PM candidate for the next Lok Sabha elections.
For his part, at his Presser in the national Capital last week, Rahul had called for an Opposition unity to take on the BJP and present a new alternate vision.
"This Bharat Jodo Yatra is not to project Rahul Gandhi as a prime ministerial candidate. It is an ideological yatra of which the main face is Rahul Gandhi. It is not one individual's yatra," Congress chief spokesperson Jairam Ramesh said in response to a media question on the sidelines of the Yatra in Karnal.
The party asserted that the 'Kanyakumari to Kashmir' foot march, which is currently passing through Karnal in Haryana, is not an election yatra. Ramesh added that Rahul Gandhi has raised three big issues in the Yatra, namely economic inequality, social polarisation and political authoritarianism.
The Yatra will enter Punjab through the Shambhu border on Tuesday. After entering Punjab, the march will head to Fatehgarh Sahib and Rahul is scheduled to address a public meeting on January 11 after paying obeisance at the gurdwara. The yatra will traverse through Punjab for seven days and a mega-rally will be organized at Pathankot on the concluding day before it leaves for Jammu and Kashmir from Madhopur on its last leg.
The Punjab Congress has appealed to the NRIs from Punjab, many of whom are on a visit back home, to participate in the yatra. Those staying abroad can mark their participation online.