Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will be in Bihar later this month to kick-off a fortnight-long ‘Matdata Adhikar Yatra’, aimed at highlighting alleged attempts to deprive people of their right to vote through the special intensive revision of electoral rolls.
The announcement was made at the Sadaqat Ashram here, the BPCC headquarters, by state president Rajesh Kumar in presence of AICC in-charge for Bihar Krishna Allavaru.
“Rahul Gandhi will kick-off the yatra in Rohtas district on August 17. Our national president Mallikarjun Kharge will also be present on the occasion. All leaders of the INDIA bloc in the state, including Tejashwi Yadav of the RJD, will be invited to the function,” he said.
The yatra will continue for a fortnight and conclude at Patna.
“Rahul Gandhi and other senior leaders will try to remain a part of the yatra as far as possible. Though depending upon their engagements elsewhere, they may be out of the state for brief periods,” Kumar said.
Replying to a query, he said, “We are a six-party coalition in Bihar and it is our endeavour to ensure that all constituents come together on the day of the commencement of the yatra. There may be leaders from outside the state as well. The INDIA bloc meeting in Delhi at Rahul Gandhi’s residence will deliberate on this point.” He also ruled out the possibility of seat-sharing in Bihar figuring in the agenda of talks at the Delhi meeting, “That has to be discussed here (in Patna). Moreover, at present, we are not so much concerned about seat-sharing as the assault on people’s voting rights through the special intensive revision, as part of which names of lakhs of people are being deleted from electoral rolls,” Kumar claimed.
