New Delhi: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is expected to join the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra in Kashmir on January 28 where a large number of women leaders, including PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti, are expected to join her in a show of women's power. “Our leader Priyanka Gandhi will join the yatra on Saturday when it will start from Awantipora. PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti will also join the yatra there. Many women leaders will take part in the foot march,” AICC in-charge Jammu and Kashmir Rajani Patil told ETV Bharat.
“It will be a show of women’s power. Mehbooba’s joining the day after NC leader Omar Abdullah walked, along with Rahul, will send positive signals about the yatra and its aim to unite the country,” she said. According to party functionaries, several party leaders like Mahila Congress chief Netta D’Souza, AICC social media in-charge Supriya Shrinate, national spokespersons Alka Lamba and Ragini Nayak, Maharashtra MLA and state unit working president Praniti Shinde, Rajasthan MLA Divya Maderna, Lok Sabha MP from Tamil Nadu Jothimani besides several other women leaders are likely to take part in the yatra.
By the time the yatra reached UP, the number of permanent yatris increased from 120 to 200 of which around 30 per cent were women. Jothimani, who was not among the permanent 120 Bharat Yatris from the start, has remained a part of the group from Kerala onwards. Priyanka Gandhi is expected to join the yatra a day before the foot march ends on January 29 in Srinagar. On January 30, there would be no yatra, but only a national flag hoisting event at the JKPCC office and later a rally at the Sher-e-Kashmir stadium.
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Before this, Priyanka had joined the yatra, along with her family in Rajasthan. Later, she welcomed the yatra in Uttar Pradesh, a state under her charge where she led several protests related to crimes against women. Priyanka had led the party’s campaign in Himachal Pradesh and recently made a promise of a Rs 2,000 allowance for women if the party wins Karnataka.
Though party managers said they would prefer that Priyanka makes a speech, they said a lot would depend on the security situation and the prevailing weather conditions in Kashmir. “It is a trend that we started when the yatra passed through Maharashtra. One day was dedicated to women empowerment in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab and now will be done in Jammu and Kashmir,” Praniti Shinde told ETV Bharat.
“There will be common women also and not only women politicians, who will walk along with Rahul Gandhi. The message would be that the Congress party respects women and raises their issues. We protest atrocities on women and do not objectify women as the BJP does. A lot of women who came to the yatra hugged Rahul Gandhi like a brother. They would think twice before doing this with a BJP leader,” she said.
