Congress Member of Parliament (MP) Rahul Gandhi will start the last phase of his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra from Maharashtra’s tribal-dominated Nandurbar district on Tuesday.
This will be the first time since 2010, that a person from the Gandhi family will be visiting the Nandurbar. In 2014, Sonia Gandhi was scheduled to visit Nandurbar, but the programme was cancelled due to her ill-health.
Once considered a bastion of Congress, the district is now politically dominated by the BJP, with leader Heena Gavit representing the seat in the Lower House of Parliament.
On March 12, Rahul Gandhi will participate in a traditional tribal Holi bonfire termed Adivasi Nyay Holi Sammelan, following which he will address a rally–Advasi Nyay sabha–in the district and then move towards Dhule.
The yatra, which started in strife-torn Manipur on January 14, will culminate in Mumbai later this month after traversing 6,700 kilometres through 15 states. It aims at highlighting the message of ‘nyay’ (justice) while meeting ordinary people on the way.
The six-day Maharashtra leg of Gandhi’s yatra by road would cover over 400 km. He would cross Dhule, Malegaon, Nashik and Thane before reaching Mumbai on March 16.
According to political experts, adding adivasi (tribal) to the name of the political rally reflects the Congress party’s aim to attract tribal voters by addressing their issues.
Political history of Nandurbar
Post Independence, Nandurbar remained a bastion of Congress and elected the party’s candidate eight times in Lok Sabha polls till 2014. But in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP managed to defeat the Congress.
In 2019, the BJP again defeated the Congress in the Lok Sabha polls.
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