On the 25th day of Bharat Jodo Yatra, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi along with party leaders attended an event at Badanavalu, Mysuru to mark the 153rd birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

Rahul Gandhi offered a floral tribute to the Mahatma Gandhi statue at Khadi Gramodyog, Badanavalu Karnataka at 8 am followed by a prayer meeting. On the 25th day of Bharat Jodo Yatra, Gandhi visited Khadi Village Industries at Badnavalu in memory of Bapu, said Congress.

Taking to a microblogging site, Congress added, “With Gandhi ‘topi’ on his head, Bapu’s values in his heart and intention to unite India, Rahul Gandhi along with other participants of Bharat Jodo Yatra visited Khadi Village Industries at Badnavalu in memory of Bapu on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti.”

Gandhi also met women weavers and talked about their experiences and challenges at work. He undertook a tree plantation by Bharat Yatris Khadi Garmodyog, Badanavalu.

Padyatra will resume at Sree Kaalibeeramma Temple Kadakola Industrial Mysuru junction at 4.30 pm and will halt at 7 pm at Bandipalya, near APMC. The participants of the 3,500-km march from Kanyakumari to Kashmir will stay near JSS Grounds, near Exhibition Grounds Mysuru.

The march was aimed to cover as many as 12 states in five months. It recently reached Karnataka on Friday (September 30) and will be here for the next 21 days before moving north.

The Padyatra (march) will cover a distance of 25 km every day.
Meanwhile, Congress is holding internal elections for the post of the party’s president for which as many as 20 nomination forms were submitted, including the ones of party leaders Shashi Tharoor, Mallikarjun Kharge, and KN Tripathi.

Kharge, a known Gandhi family loyalist, entered into the fray at the eleventh hour, and several top leaders from the G-23 faction flanked Kharge when he filed the nomination papers today.

Senior Congress leader and MP, Shashi Tharoor on Friday filed his nomination for the post of party President at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) office in the national capital.

Kharge received support from nearly 30 Congress leaders for the party’s presidential polls.

Meanwhile, Jharkhand Congress leader KN Tripathi also filed his nomination for the party’s topmost position yesterday and said that “the decision of party leaders is respected”.

Meanwhile, former Madhya Pradesh CM Digvijaya Singh dropped out of the Congress presidential race. He too extended his support to Kharge, saying he “cannot think of contesting an election” against a senior leader like Kharge.
Singh was the second Congress leader to pull out of the race after Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot amid political turmoil in his state. Gehlot said he would be the proposer for Kharge.

Nominations for the post of Congress president close at 3 pm on Saturday and results will be declared on October 19.

(With ANI Inputs)