Is Rahul Gandhi planning Bharat Jodo Yatra 2.0? What Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said

NEW DELHI: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday said that party leaders want Rahul Gandhi to undertake another Bharat Jodo Yatra from the east to the west. Kharge however added that the final decision on the yatra will be of Rahul Gandhi. Rahul's first Bharat Jodo Yatra was from Kanyakumari (south) to Kashmir (north). It started on September 7, 2022 and continued for almost 126 days before ending in Kashmir on January 30, 2023. Kharge's remarks come amid reports that the Congress is planning Bharat Jodo Yatra 2.0 to galvanise the party ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls after its dismal show in the just concluded assembly elections. At the Congress Working Committee meeting, Kharge asked party leaders to concentrate on actionable points keeping in mind the approaching Lok Sabha elections. The Congress president admitted that the outcome of recent assembly polls were disappointing for the party, which is aiming to challenge the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The Congress lost the elections in the three key heartland states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. It had won all the three states five years ago and had governments in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.Kharge said that he has learnt valuable lessons from the mistakes in the assembly elections and is committed to not repeating them.Noting that the outcomes of the elections in five states, barring Telangana, were "disappointing", he said the Congress has conducted a preliminary analysis of the results and identified the reasons behind its performance."Despite the results, there are some positive indicators, such as the vote share in these states, which give us a definite hope that given due attention, we can certainly turn things around."We have learnt valuable lessons from the mistakes we have made and are committed to not repeating them," he told the CWC.(With inputs from agencies)