Leaders at Yatra, workers spread out to rally support, Congress Srinagar headquarters waits for Rahul Gandhi

It is at this party office that Rahul will culminate his 3,000-plus-km Yatra with hoisting of the Tricolour. (Express Photo)

A resident of Pulwama in South Kashmir, Bhat is arguably the only party leader in the Valley these days. “Everyone is out working for the Yatra,” says Bhat, surrounded by half-a-dozen workers, two of them women.

Talking enthusiastically about the Yatra and its “success”, Bhat says hundreds of party workers are out in “every part of Kashmir” to invite people to the march. “They have gone to the people with the slogan of Rahulji. They explain it to them and invite them,” he says. “You will see, there will be thousands of people out on the streets — from Teetwal (on the Line of Control in Kupwara), from Uri (on Line of Control in Baramulla), from south Kashmir. And they will not be just Congress workers or sympathisers. There will be people irrespective of their party affiliations.”

On January 26, Rahul will be hoisting the Tricolour at Banihal in Jammu, and then cross the Jawahar tunnel and arrive in the Valley on the morning of January 27. He will walk stretches of the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway and he is expected to stay at the Government Degree College in Khanabal, Anantnag, for the night. On the morning of January 28, he is scheduled to re-start his march and arrive, by the evening, at Panthachowk, on the outskirts of Srinagar city.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi with supporters during the party’s ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’, in Kathua district, Friday, Jan 20, 2023. (PTI Photo)

There is a welcome planned by the Congress at Qazigund in South Kashmir. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that has accepted the Congress’s invitation to join the Yatra, and is the most enthusiastic of the mainstream political parties in Kashmir in welcoming it, is also planning a reception for Rahul in South Kashmir.

Party sources said PDP workers held a meeting in South Kashmir on Saturday to finalise the arrangements for Rahul’s welcome and Yatra. A large number of PDP workers are expected to be part of Rahul’s foot march.

“We have a clear stand on it. We have no doubt that this is for the betterment of the country because of the toxic atmosphere that has been created,” says senior PDP leader Naeem Akhtar . “It looks like a sincere effort.”

National Conference (NC) president and former chief minister Farooq Abdullah earlier joined the Yatra in Jammu. NC spokesperson Imran Nabi said that when it arrives in Kashmir, “we will join them, both our leaders and workers”.

The BJP dismissed the Yatra as “an image-building exercise” for Rahul. “It is a Yatra for personal benefit. It will not benefit the country. There is no national interest in it. India was one, is one and will remain one,” BJP media in-charge for Kashmir Manzoor Bhat said, in a comment on the march’s slogan of “Bharat Jodi”.

The BJP leader added: “If he (Rahul) is really concerned about the nation, he should talk about PoK (Pakistan Occupied Kashmir). He is saying that he is coming to his home (as his ancestors belonged to Kashmir), why didn’t he remember his home all these years when the people, Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs, were killed here?”

While the government is expected to agree to the Rahul Yatra plan, sources said he might be asked to make some small changes and avoid certain areas that are considered a security threat.

Bhat said they had not been suggested any route plan yet by the government. Sources in the Congress said they would not be averse to minor changes as they don’t want to “give any chance to the government to sabotage the Yatra”.

In Srinagar, Rahul is scheduled to meet and interact with certain delegations and visitors, and address a public rally at the Sher-i-Kashmir Cricket Stadium on January 30. On the same day, he will hoist the Tricolour at the Congress headquarters, thus marking the end of the party’s biggest such public outreach programme in recent years.