MP Danish Ali, who was suspended by the Bahujan Samaj Party, joined the Congress’ Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Manipur’s Imphal on Sunday.

“Today, I have decided to join Shri Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra,” Ali announced in a series of social media posts. “This is a very important moment for me. I have arrived here after much soul searching.”

The Bahujan Samaj Party had suspended Ali for alleged anti-party activities in December. The party did not specify based on what activity it took the action.

His suspension came as the MP was seeking action against the Bharatiya Janata Party legislator Ramesh Bidhuri who used communal slurs against him inside Parliament in September.

Bidhuri, an MP from South Delhi, made the communal remarks on September 21 during a debate in the Lok Sabha on the success of India’s Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission. Bidhuri had called Ali “mullah terrorist”, “pimp” and “katwa”, a slur used for circumcised Muslims.

On Sunday, Ali said that his decision to join the march came naturally to him as he had been on the “receiving end of a similar attack” that the Congress is campaigning against.

Without naming Bidhuri, Ali said that his calls for “justice and action against the guilty Member of Parliament fell on deaf ears”.

“Instead of punishing my attacker, the ruling establishment rewarded him,” he said. “I have realised that the attack on me was part of a larger plan to create an atmosphere of fear and hate in the country. In that hour of distress, Rahul Gandhi ji was the first leader to express solidarity with me and stand by me and my family.”

Ali was apparently referring to Bidhuri’s appointment as the poll in-charge of Rajasthan’s Tonk district days after his communal tirade.

In his series of social media posts, Ali described the yatra as a “call for action against divisive forces” and a “drive to unite the people of our country against fear, hate, exploitation and divisiveness”.

“I have decided to join him in this yatra because I feel I would be failing in my duty as a politician and a social worker if I did not join the biggest drive for unity and justice,” he added. “I pray for the success of this yatra and for the future of my country.”

Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra

Gandhi had kicked off the march in Imphal on Sunday.

In this second large-scale outreach programme of the party just ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Gandhi will travel 6,200 kms across 15 states – Manipur, Nagaland, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

The march is scheduled to end on March 20.

The march route covers nearly 100 Lok Sabha constituencies. Of the total, 58 are in the Hindi belt states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar and Rajasthan.