Ahmedabad: The Congress on Tuesday launched yatras in five zones of Gujarat to reach out to people ahead of the Assembly polls.
During the ‘Gujarat Parivartan Sankalp Yatra’, 145 public meetings and 95 rallies will be held along the route covering more than 5,400 km.
The yatras were launched from Vadgam, Bhuj, Somnath, Fagvel and Jambusar, party leaders said.
The ‘Parivartan Sankalp Yatra’ was earlier scheduled to start on Monday but was postponed by a day following the Morbi bridge collapse tragedy on Sunday.
The Gujarat Assembly polls are due this year-end. The Election Commission is yet to announce the poll schedule.
The party sources said leaders who were scheduled to flag off the yatras couldn’t make it on Tuesday due to other engagements, following which another set of leaders launched them.
Senior Congress leaders, including Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, his Chhattisgarh counterpart Bhupesh Baghel, former Madhya Pradesh chief ministers Digvijaya Singh and Kamal Nath, and MLA Sachin Pilot, were expected to join the yatra, party leaders had said earlier.
“During the ‘Parivartan Sankalp Yatra’, 145 public meetings and 95 rallies will be organised throughout the journey. The yatra, which will cover 5,432 km, aims to establish direct contact with 4.5 crore people,” state Congress president Jagdish Thakor earlier said.
More than 10 lakh workers of Congress will join the yatra and people will be assured that the party will keep 11 promises if voted to power, he had said.
The Congress has promised to provide free treatment of up to Rs 10 lakh, farmers’ debt waiver of up to Rs 3 lakh, electricity bill waiver, 10 lakh government jobs to youth, unemployment allowance of Rs 3,000 per month, the opening of 3,000 government English medium schools, Rs 4 lakh compensation for COVID-19 deaths, among other things.
The yatra was flagged off from Fagvel by senior party leaders Mohan Prakash and former GPCC president Amit Chavda, from Vagdam by state Congress incharge Raghu Sharma and state unit chief Jagdish Thakor, from Bhuj by Ramkishan Oza and Lalit Kagathara, from Somnath by Arjun Modhwadia and Paresh Dhanani and from Jambusar by Congress spokesperson Supriya Sirneth and Tushar Chaudhary.
“A large number of people joined these yatras,” Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi claimed.
The yatras will be in each zone for seven days.
In the 2017 Assembly polls, the BJP had won 99 seats, and Congress 77.
The Congress is facing stiff competition from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which is projecting itself as the main challenger of the BJP.
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