Nitish Kumar To Share Stage With Rahul Gandhi When His Yatra Enters Bihar

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra' will enter Bihar on January 29 and cover four districts in three days during which top INDIA bloc leaders may join him for public meetings, the party announced on Monday.

Addressing a press conference at the historical Sadaqat Ashram, the Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee headquarters, senior leader and MLC Prem Chandra Mishra said that Mr Gandhi will reach Kishanganj district from Siliguri in West Bengal, and after interacting with the public and a night halts, leave for Purnea a day later.

"In Purnea, a big rally has been planned. Invites have been sent to our alliance partners like Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who has agreed to come. In the event of his getting caught up elsewhere, the JD(U) president has assured that a senior leader will be sent to represent his party," said Mishra.

An invitation has been extended to RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, a staunch ally of the Congress, "who may attend the rally in Purnea, or at Katihar scheduled on January 31, as per his availability in view of an ED summons", he said.

Notably, the Enforcement Directorate has asked Prasad and his son Tejashwi Yadav, the Deputy CM of Bihar, to appear at its office in Patna on January 29 and 30 respectively for questioning in connection with the alleged land-for-jobs scam, pertaining to a period when the RJD supremo held Railway portfolio in the Manmohan Singh government.

Mishra added that other alliance partners like state leaders of CPI and CPI(M), besides CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya "have also been invited and they have agreed to lend their support to the Yatra".

Mishra, who has been made the chairman of the media committee for the Yatra, said Mr Gandhi will also touch the Araria district before heading back to West Bengal on February 1.

"This will be the first leg of the Yatra in Bihar. In the second leg, of which the schedule will be shared in due course, the Yatra will cover south Bihar districts of Aurangabad, Kaimur and Rohtas. Thus, it will touch altogether seven districts of the state and cover a distance of 425 km," said Mishra.

The Congress leader, who also heads the party's "war room" in the state, claimed that there was "a lot of public enthusiasm" in Bihar for the Yatra that comes just ahead of Lok Sabha polls.

Mishra also lamented that "on a day there are celebrations galore following consecration ceremony at Ram temple in Ayodhya, Rahul Gandhi was not allowed to visit the birthplace of Vaishnava saint Srimanta Sankaradev in Assam".

He alleged that Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who had quit the Congress to join BJP a decade ago, "must be acting upon orders from above, since the central government is rattled by the public response to the Yatra".

"Whenever the Yatra passes through a BJP-ruled state, hurdles are put in its way. We are going to stage a march in Patna, wearing black badges, to register our protest", Mishra added. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)