Farooq Abdullah May Join at Lakhanpur as Bharat Jodo Yatra Set to Enter J&K

Srinagar: The ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra of the Congress party led by Rahul Gandhi is set to enter Jammu and Kashmir, the final destination of the five-month-long journey, on Thursday with former chief minister Dr Farooq Abdullah likely to join the march at Lakhanpur in Jammu. 

Senior Congress leader from Jammu and Kashmir, G A Mir, who is also overseeing the preparations for the Yatra in the region, told NewsClick that they are ready to welcome Rahul to begin his march tomorrow. 

The Yatra is expected to enter J&K near Lakhanpur at about 4 pm on Thursday. According to Mir, there will be no march on the first day but will begin on Friday from Hatli Morh to Chadwal, a distance of around 25 km. 

“We are set for the Yatra to begin but tomorrow we will only have a handover and takeover ceremony between Punjab Congress and J&K congress that will continue for about an hour. Rahul ji is also expected to speak and thank the people of Punjab,” Mir said. 

Mir added that all the routes have been discussed and cleared from Lakhanpur to Banihal. Banihal, which is around 100 km from Srinagar city, is the entry point for Kashmir valley where the Yatra is expected to culminate with a grand rally at Srinagar’s Sher-e-Kashmir stadium. 

After a break on January 21, the Yatra will resume on January 22 from Hiranagar up to Duggar Haveli Nanak Chack and will start again from Vijaypur up to Satwari on January 23, with a night halt at Sidhra. The former state Congress president said that the Srinagar route will most likely be cleared by the Union Territory (UT) administration and security agencies on Thursday. 

“We have applied for permission from the administration. We are hopeful of getting it as well. One of the Congress delegations met the Additional Director-General of Police on Tuesday and discussed in detail the Yatra’s security aspects," party in charge J&K Affairs Rajni Patil said at a press conference in Jammu.

The Yatra will likely begin from Jawahar Tunnel in Banihal on January 27 and move through South Kashmir areas including Dooru, Verinag, Kokernag and Anantnag to reach Srinagar. 

“All the top likeminded leaders from different parties, who have extended support to Yatra, or don’t share ideological grounds with BJP will join the culmination ceremony in Srinagar sending a message to the country and the world that a change is imminent and there will be no room for dictatorship in the future,” All India Congress Committee (AICC) Coordinator Chetan Chauhan said.  

Mir added that former CM Dr Farooq Abdullah has expressed his willingness to join Rahul at Lakhanpur while People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti will join in Kashmir. Other senior leaders like National Conference’s Omar Abdullah, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Rout, Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI (M) leader Mohd Yousaf Tarigami, Muzaffar Shah from Awami National Conference are also expected to join the Yatra in the coming days. 

Before entering Jammu and Kashmir, the march, which began at Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu on September 7, has so far covered Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. 

Director General of Police (DGP), J&K, Dilbagh Singh earlier on Tuesday said that adequate arrangements have been put in place for the Bharat Jodo Yatra after a high-level meeting of top police and security officials was held. 

“Adequate security arrangements have been put in place to ensure trouble-free Bharat Jodo Yatra in J&K,” the DGP said in a presser.

Ahead of the Yatra, however, the Congress party’s former spokesperson Advocate Deepika Singh, who represented the Kathua gangrape victim in 2018 said she has resigned from the party’s membership as a mark of protest against former minister Lal Singh’s plan to join Rahul.

"In view of Ch. Lal Singh's proposal of joining Bharat Jodo and INC Jammu and Kashmir allows the same, I am left with no other option but to resign from INC. Lal Singh was responsible for sabotaging the Kathua rape case in 2018 by brazenly defending rapists,” she tweeted.