Leaders of several Opposition parties joined Rahul Gandhi amid heavy snowfall in Srinagar at the concluding ceremony of the Congress’ Bharat Jodo Yatra on Monday afternoon.

Besides Gandhi, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, the party’s general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other senior leaders of the party were also present.

Among the Opposition parties, representatives of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Bahujan Samaj Party, National Conference, Peoples Democratic Party, Communist Party of India, Revolutionary Socialist Party and the Indian Union Muslim League were at the event.

Leaders from the Nationalist Congress Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena were also scheduled to be in Srinagar, but their plans could be hampered due to disruption in air and road traffic because of the snowfall, NDTV reported.

Earlier on Monday, the Congress took out a rally from the Sher-e-Kashmir Cricket Stadium in Srinagar to mark the culmination of its Bharat Jodo Yatra, PTI reported. Gandhi also hoisted the national flag at the Bharat Jodo Yatra camp site at Panthachowk.

Kharge said at the rally that the march was not for winning elections but to counter the hate spread by the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in the country, reported PTI.

“Rahul Gandhi has proven that he can unite the country from Kanyakumari to Kashmir on issues like unemployment and inflation,” Kharge added. “Modiji, RSS and BJP want to keep poor people poor and to make rich, richer. 10% people are looting 72% wealth of the country while 50% own just 3%.”

As part of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, Gandhi has covered 12 states on foot since starting the march on September 7. He addressed 12 public meetings, over 100 corner meetings and 13 press conferences during the march.

Addressing the concluding ceremony on Monday, Peoples Democratic Party chief and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said that the whole country was seeing a ray of hope in the Congress leader. National Conference leader Omar Abdullah urged Gandhi to undertake another march from the western coast of India to the country’s eastern border.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said that people came out in support of his brother in every part of the country.

“Standing here, I can say that the politics going on in the country is something which can’t benefit the nation,” she said, according to ANI. “A politics that divides and breaks, affects the nation. So, in a way, this was a spiritual yatra.”

Meanwhile, Congress MP KC Venugopal said that the party will soon have a second leg of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, reported The Indian Express.

“We are yet to decide how it [second leg of the march] should be carried out,” Venugopal told the newspaper. “The final design has not come but there will surely be a second leg, in which Rahul Gandhi will be involved. There are many views in the party. But there will be a second leg. The Congress will be on the field throughout this year.”

The party has already begun a three-month long “Haath Se Haath Jodo Abhiyaan” where party leaders and workers will take the message of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, its success and the political situation in the country to every house across the country, Venugopal said.


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