West UP back on Rahul’s Yatra map, but will skirt RLD strongholds

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has yet again tweaked his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’s route and included five districts of west Uttar Pradesh, a region which he had decided to skip following the exit of the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) – seen to be influential in the region – from the INDIA bloc.

Congress general secretary in-charge (communications) Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday said the yatra will resume on February 24 from Moradabad, after a two-day break, and head to Sambhal, Aligarh, Hathras and Agra (all in west UP) before moving on to Dholpur in Rajasthan. Sources said Rahul will cover the five districts in a day as he wants to “save time”.

It was also announced that there would be a break in the Yatra from February 26 to March 1, when Rahul will head to Cambridge University in the UK to “fulfil his long-standing commitment” to deliver two special lectures.

The districts in west UP which Rahul will tour have a significant population of Muslims. While Jats are dominant in Moradabad, Dalits make up a key part of the population in Hathras and Agra. Rahul will skip constituencies like Baghpat, Mathura, Kairana, Muzaffarnagar, Bijnor, Nagina and Amroha, where the RLD is said to be influential. He will not travel to Hamirpur and Jhansi either, which was scheduled earlier.

Moradabad and Sambhal, where the Yatra will pass through, were won by Congress ally Samajwadi Party (SP) in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, when it fought in a tie-up with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and RLD. The SP has declared sitting MP Shafiqur Rahman Barq as its candidate for Sambhal, while it is yet to name its nominee for the Moradabad seat.

According to the original route, the Yatra was to traverse through Chandauli, Varanasi, Jaunpur, Allahabad, Bhadohi,