Sonia Gandhi likely to join Bharat Jodo Yatra in Karnataka on Oct 6

Yatra will pass through the state for 21 days

ITDC INDIA EPRESS/ ITDC NEWS Congress president Sonia Gandhi will participate in the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Karnataka on October 6, reports said on Sunday. Party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is also likely to join the yatra the next day.

The grand old party's ambitious yatra, led by Rahul Gandhi, began from Kanyakumari on September 7. After passing through Tamil Nadu and Kerala, it entered Karnataka on September 30.

The yatra will pass through Karnataka for 21 days covering 511 km in the state. Sonia Gandhi will walk with the participants on October 6 during the Karnataka leg of the march, PTI reported quoting sources.

October 4 and 5 will be "rest day" for the yatra on the occasion of Dasara festival.

The party chief's reported plan to join the march in Karnataka assumes significance as the BJP-ruled state goes to polls next year.

Karnataka Congress president D.K. Shivakumar and AICC general secretary K.C. Venugopal had earlier announced that both Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi would participate in the Bharat Jodo Yatra in the state. They, however, had not confirmed the dates.

On Friday, addressing a public meeting at Gundlupet, Rahul Gandhi had claimed that the Bharat Jodo Yatra was the only option left with the party to reach out to the masses as all other fora for expression are shut.

According to him, the objective of the march is to "save" the Indian Constitution, and "to stand up against the BJP and RSS' ideology of hatred and violence".