INDIA bloc leaders join Rahul Gandhi's march to mark ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ culmination in Bihar

Leaders of the INDIA bloc from across the country on Monday converged in Patna to join Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s march to mark the culmination of the fortnight-long ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’.

During the yatra, the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha travelled to 25 districts of the state, covering a distance of more than 1,300 kilometres.

The march, which began at the historical Gandhi Maidan here with the Congress MP and his allies atop an open vehicle, was stopped at the Dak Bungalow crossing, nearly a kilometre ahead of the statue of BR Ambedkar in the vicinity of Patna High Court, the desired end point, which was reflected in the title of the procession, “from Gandhi to Ambedkar”.

“Barricades had been put up at Dak Bungalow crossing since the road beyond is a restricted area where no processions can be allowed,” said Kartikeya Sharma, Senior Superintendent of Police, Patna.

The leaders, however, seemed prepared for the eventuality with a makeshift stage erected at the spot, and they quietly alighted from the open vehicle from which they had been leading a swarm of political activists waving their respective party flags.

Heavyweights, including INDIA bloc’s de facto chief ministerial candidate Tejashwi Yadav, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut and Left stalwarts Annie Raja, MA Baby and Dipankar Bhattacharya took turns to address the public.

The handling of the crowds by the police was criticised by Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge, the last but one speaker who took the mic before Gandhi.

“Why this pushing and shoving at a gathering where leaders of opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Bihar Assembly are present,” asked the 83-year-old leader.

“I do not want to threaten the police, but if you are trying to disrupt this public meeting under instructions from the ruling dispensation, then remember that the days of the government in the state are numbered,” he claimed.

Earlier, Yadav told the gathering that he was “not scared” of the BJP and reminded the people of the arrest of Lal Krishna Advani in Bihar, at the peak of the Ayodhya movement, by the government headed by his father and RJD president Lalu Prasad.

The young leader also tore into Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, alleging “political somersaults every now and then have made him lose his mind”.

“For quite some time, he has been rolling out benefits which I had promised. He may be a copycat but lacks a vision of his own. His government must be thrown out in upcoming Assembly polls,” Yadav claimed.

After the public meeting was over, Gandhi, accompanied by state Congress president Rajesh Kumar and a handful of other party colleagues, visited the high court campus and paid floral tributes to the statue of Ambedkar.

Soren took a veiled dig at the Narendra Modi government, alleging “some crafty and cunning people came to power in 2014 and since then they have been bringing ruin upon the country”.

“You all may recall how I was jailed during the Lok Sabha polls. Months later, when I was released, we defeated the NDA in the Assembly polls. Had I not been put behind bars during parliamentary elections, we would have ensured that the BJP-led coalition did not get a single seat in Jharkhand,” he told the gathering.

Baby and Raja, whose husband D Raja, the general secretary of CPI, had reached Gandhi Maidan in a party procession, spoke in a smattering of Hindi, much to the crowd’s delight.

Bhattacharya, in his speech, said, “Special investigation revision of electoral rolls is ‘vote bandi’, like demonetisation was ‘note bandi’. The earlier move had ruined the economy. The latest move imperils our electoral democracy.”

Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut said, “The roars emanating from here are loud enough to reach the champion ‘vote thief’ who is currently on a China visit.”