Rahul Yatra Day 38: Two days before Congress presidential poll, Kharge joins in

Mallikarjun Kharge was expected to join Rahul Gandhi’s yatra on October 6 but stayed away till the 38th day for fear of being seen as the Gandhis' official candidate.

Mallikarjun Kharge joined the yatra in Ballari on Saturday, its 38th day, and walked for more than 2 km. (Express photo)

Two days before the Congress presidential election, Mallikarjun Kharge, one of the two candidates and a senior leader from Karnataka, joined Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra for the first time.

Kharge joined the yatra in Ballari on Saturday, its 38th day, and walked for more than 2 km. The MP was expected to participate in the yatra on October 6 but stayed away on account of his campaign for the October 17 poll and fears that he would be seen as being officially backed by Rahul and party president Sonia Gandhi.

The other candidate, MP Shashi Tharoor, was part of the yatra last month in Kerala, his home state, before filing his nomination.

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In his speech at a massive rally in Ballari, Kharge said the backward Kalyana Karnataka (Hyderabad-Karnataka) region had got special status under Article 371 J of the Constitution thanks to Sonia and Rahul. “It was the Congress government that gave special status to this region. Previously, the youths of this region were not getting jobs but now they get jobs,” he said.

“We are not holding the Bharat Jodo Yatra for political gains, but against communal disharmony and a failed economic system. The RSS and the BJP are busy dividing society on the basis of religion. We want to bring back harmony. Our fight is also against unemployment, price rises and the failed economic system,” he said.

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Kharge is expected to hold a press conference in Bengaluru on Sunday. He is the favourite to become the Congress president, a fact that the rival BJP’s information technology cell head Amit Malviya alluded to, albeit in a dig at Tharoor. “Shashi Tharoor, like Yashwant Sinha, is an eager contestant, who loves to fight losing battles. But it doesn’t take away from the fact that Tharoor has been abandoned, even by the G-23 group, of which he was a part, and is staring at an imminent defeat. False bravado won’t help,” he tweeted.

At the Ballari rally, Rahul lashed out at the BJP governments at the Centre and in the state as well as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. “The ideology that RSS-BJP is promoting is leading to violence in the country. It is not nationalism but anti-nationalism. The atrocities against scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in the country have increased by 50 per cent. The objective of organising the Bharat Jodo Yatra is to unite the people of the country, who are being deceived by BJP and RSS,” the Congress MP said.

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“Before 2014, Narendra Modi expressed his ‘concerns’ as the domestic gas cylinder price was at Rs 400 and said it had affected mothers and sisters. Now, the same cylinder price is at Rs 1,050 and why doesn’t he show his concern for mothers and sisters of this country?” he said.

Referring to the Congress’s “40 per cent commission sarkara” tag for the state government, Rahul said that government jobs in Karnataka were on sale. “If you want to be a police sub-inspector (PSI), you need to pay Rs 80 lakh. There are about 2.5 lakh jobs vacant in Karnataka but none of them are filled. The recent PSI and assistant professor recruitment scams are a few to name. You pay 40 per cent commission and you can do anything in Karnataka,” he said.

The Bharat Jodo Yatra has completed 1,000 km, with Rahul and other leaders walking 9 km on Saturday. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his Chhattisgarh counterpart, Bhupesh Baghel, also participated in the rally.