Mumbai, 8 March

The Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra will conclude in Mumbai on 17 March with a rally at Shivaji Park in the city, Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole has said. 

The party will sound its poll bugle for upcoming Lok Sabha elections at the event, he said on Thursday. The yatra will enter Maharashtra from Nandurbar on 12 March and preparations for it are almost complete, said Patole. “The concluding rally of the Nyay Yatra will be held at Shivaji Park in Mumbai on March 17,” he said. The party has got all permissions for the rally, he said.

Patole said leaders from the Maha Vikas Aghadi, comprising the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP group led by Sharad Pawar, will attend the event. “We (Congress) will sound the poll bugle for the Lok Sabha elections there,” he said.

Congress leaders on Thursday held a review meeting in the presence of the party’s state in-charge Ramesh Chennithala ahead of the yatra. Patole said the BJP is “stealing leaders from other parties as it does not have competent candidates of its own”. He also took a swipe at the ruling party for not including Union minister Nitin Gadkari, who is from Nagpur, in the first list of candidates.

“The name of such a national leader (Gadkari) should have been on the first list of BJP but it hasn't been done. Congress has a capable candidate for Nagpur and this time the party will win,” he said, adding they will field a candidate in Sangli as well.

In the 2019 general elections, the BJP had won in 23 constituencies, followed by the undivided Shiv Sena, which bagged 18 seats. While the NCP had got four seats, one seat each went to the Congress, AIMIM and an Independent candidate.