New DelhiAugust 29, 2025 09:46 AM IST
First published on: Aug 29, 2025 at 09:00 AM IST
Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi’s ongoing “Voter Adhikar Yatra” across Bihar is going to conclude on September 1 with a padyatra (foot march) in Patna instead of a rally in the state capital’s historic Gandhi Maidan as announced earlier.
The 16-day Yatra, which began on August 17 from Sasaram, would culminate after traversing a distance of 1,300 km across 23 districts in the poll-bound state.
The theme song of the Yatra – in which RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and some other Opposition INDIA bloc leaders have also been participating – is Rahul’s “vote chori” allegations against the Election Commission (EC) and the BJP amid the row over the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar.
Flanked by the RJD and CPI(ML) Liberation leaders, senior Congress spokesman Pawan Khera told the media in Dhaka in East Champaran Thursday that Rahul’s Yatra will conclude on Monday with a “massive procession” from Gandhi Maidan to Babasaheb Ambedkar’s statue in Patna. “The Yatra has been like a religious pilgrimage in which people of all faiths have been taking part to save their votes. On September 1, it will conclude with a procession in Patna in which our leaders will march from Gandhi Maidan to Babasaheb Ambedkar’s statue. It will not be the end, but the beginning of a new yatra towards protecting our democracy,” Khera said, claiming that “lakhs will take part in the Yatra’s concluding procession”.
“There is worry across the country of what has been happening for the last 10-12 years. The country has understood that their (BJP dispensation’s) theft will not work and that they need to be punished which will first be done in Bihar,” Khera claimed.
The Congress camp attributed the change of plan for the Yatra’s end to the party’s assessment that a march through the streets of Patna during its finale would create more resonance among people than a rally.
Congress sources said it was decided to hold a procession “as Rahul and other INDIA bloc leaders walking through the Patna streets would send a stronger message to people” on the eve of the Assembly polls.
Sources added that since several Opposition alliance leaders, including DMK chief and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin, have already joined the Yatra, so “gathering them again at a rally would not make much impact”.
“Some of our allies, especially CPI(ML)L, suggested to us that instead of a public meeting, a procession would send out a strong signal to the people that the INDIA bloc is in the streets to protect the voting right of the people of the state,” said a source in the Bihar Congress.
A Congress leader said the party is making efforts to ensure that all INDIA allies are in attendance during Monday’s padyatra. “We are reaching out to our allies and are speaking to them. We hope that representatives from all INDIA parties will attend the march in Patna,” said the leader.
The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) has yet to confirm whether its representative would attend the Patna march, sources said.
On a parallel between Yatra’s “vote chor gaddi chhodh” slogan and Rahul’s “chowkidar chor hai” pitch in his campaign for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections – which was swept by the BJP-led NDA – Khera said, “The people of the country have been distracted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rhetoric for long. But they are now fed up. Hence, we are confident that the slogan ‘vote chor gaddi chhodh’ will have a greater impact than ‘chowkidar chor hai’.”