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Sanjay Raut joins Bharat Jodo Yatra in Jammu, says only Rahul Gandhi can take on Modi in 2024

The Shiv Sena leader says Rahul Gandhi's energy and enthusiasm are infectious and criticises Telangana Chandrashekar Rao for holding an Opposition unity meeting without the Congress.

Raut said that given the response the Bharat Jodo Yatra had drawn, it was clear that Gandhi was posing a serious challenge to Modi both on the political and the popularity front. (Express photo)
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Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut joined the last leg of the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Jammu on Friday and said an Opposition front without the Congress would be meaningless and that only Rahul Gandhi could challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2024 and end the BJP’s “dictatorial regime”.

“The Opposition parties are trying to come together under a single banner. Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao seems to have taken an initiative in this direction. At a meeting convened by Rao, Akhilesh Yadav, Arvind Kejriwal and Pinarayi Vijayan were present. But these leaders are heading regional parties and trying to keep the Congress away. Why are they afraid of the Congress? By keeping the Congress away, forging Opposition unity is impossible,” Raut told The Indian Express after walking a good 12 km.

Raut said that given the response the Bharat Jodo Yatra had drawn, it was clear that Gandhi was posing a serious challenge to Modi both on the political and the popularity front.

“The Opposition should take a cue from the Bharat Jodo Yatra. Rahul has emerged as the favourite leader. If the Opposition joins hands with Congress and Rahul leads from the front, there is no reason why the BJP’s dictatorial regime will not be halted. Rahul Gandhi is posing a serious challenge to Narendra Modi,” he said.

Raut said his meeting with Gandhi was similar to the one between the latter and Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray. “We both hugged each other and had a hearty laugh,” said Raut.

Raut said Gandhi’s high energy level and enthusiasm had spurred him to keep walking. “Though I am a heart patient, I felt like I should keep walking with Rahul. It was Rahul who told me to take a breather otherwise I was game for a few more kilometres…Rahul’s energy level and enthusiasm are infectious. He is leading from the front, every individual in his Yatra tries to keep pace with him but he keeps his spirited walk going, smiling and interacting on the way,” the Sena MP said.

Raut said he had a long conversation with Gandhi on everything from politics to health. “Rahul inquired about my health. He used to do so when I was in jail. He was in touch with my family. He inquired about the health of our party chief, Uddhav Thackeray, and also expressed desire to meet him,” said Raut.

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Raut said the Yatra was delayed by more than an hour because of heavy rain. “Unmindful of the drizzle, I walked hand in hand with Rahul. Rahul himself looked unstoppable. The response all along the route was overwhelming. I wish I could carry on but Rahul wanted me to rest because of health reasons,” he said.

Raut said Thursday that he had met government employees from the Kashmiri Pandit community who have been protesting for over 11 months demanding relocation to Jammu. “I expressed the Shiv Sena’s support for them,” he said.

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.   Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were  asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.     Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More


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