Launch of a walkathon in Bhubaneswar’s Indira Gandhi Maidan.
The Bharat Jodo Yatra was started by the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) on Monday at the Indira Gandhi Maidan in Bhubaneswar, where Indira Gandhi gave her final speech.
She had mentioned spilling her last drop of blood for the nation’s harmony.
The politicians joined Sarat Pattanayak, president of the PCC, in the Bharat Joda Yatra to pay respects to Indira Gandhi on the anniversary of her passing. The Yatra was started by AICC general secretary and Odisha representative Dr. A. Chella Kumar as a component of the Congress’s nationwide drive for national unity, which was started by Rahul Gandhi.
Manas Choudury, a senior member of the Congress, stated: “We attach a lot of importance on the location. On October 31, 1984, Indira gave a speech addressing national integration. Because of national integration, she was killed. The same ideas and principles are being worked on by the Congress.
The area was once a desolate field where public gatherings were held; today, it is a vast garden bearing Indira Gandhi’s name.
More than 6000 people showed up on the Yatra’s first day to participate in it. In 100 days, the Yatra will travel 2,250 kilometres via 25 districts in the state. When asked if they would be able to travel the distance, a Congress leader responded, “You see, no one had imagined it would take us such a long way when Congress launched its Yatra to connect with the people on September 7. More than 1,400 kilometres have been travelled during Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Yoda Yatra. Our leaders are committed to successfully complete the Yatra in Odisha after taking a hint from it.
It’s difficult to say whether the trip would help the Congress regain control of Odisha in 2024, but the party’s officials are optimistic that it will help them reconnect with the public and revive the party’s moribund membership.
The Naveen Patnaik government, according to Patnaik, “has also failed to provide employment for the people of the state, like the BJP.”
The party hoped to draw attention to a number of urgent issues that the nation is now grappling with through the Yatra.
It will bring up issues like rising prices, escalating unemployment, inflation, lawlessness, and intolerance.
However, there won’t be a Yatra for the following two days due to the Dahmanagar byelection on November 3. It would then continue. It travelled a 15 mile journey on Monday.
Prasanta Patnaik 
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