The Congress party has invited Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha leader Bimal Gurung, Hamro Party president Ajoy Edwards, Gorkha National Liberation Front president Mann Ghisingh, among others, to attend the partys ‘Sagar thekey pahar’ (from the seas to the mountains), the Bengal chapter of the Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Rahul Gandhi. The rally that started from Gangasagar on December 28 will arrive at Bidhannagar near Siliguri on 21 January.

It will reach its final destination in Kurseong in Darjeeling on 23 January, the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Darjeeling district Congress (Plains) president Sankar Malakar held a preparatory meeting in this regard in Kurseong yesterday. “We held a meeting with frontal organisations over the march in Kurseong. The march will arrive at Kurseong railway station on 23 January. We have invited Bimal Gurung, Ajoy Edwards, Mann Ghising, Binoy Tamang, among others, along with minority and social organisations to participate in the march.

We have also invited all the political parties, except the BJP, to join the yatra. We are expecting representatives from a crosssection of society in the event,” Mr Malakar said. The party has, however, not invited the Bhartiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha led by Anit Thapa. The party will organise a meeting at the railway station. “The purpose of the rally is to send across a message of unity amid the vicious atmosphere of promoting hate and division. The rally is reaching out to the people to reestablish connection with the masses. We have selected Kurseong because of its historical importance. Netaji had been kept under house arrest by the British government at Giddapahar there. We will hold a public meeting at the railway station to explain to the people why we are organising the yatra, and its significance,” Mr Malakar said.

Netaji was placed under house arrest in 1936 at Giddapahar in the house owned by his elder brother Sarat Chandra Bose. The rally will leave for Kurseong from the Dagapur playground in Siliguri on 23 January. Mr Malakar said the march will be led by Congress leader and former Union minister Dipa Das Munsi from Bidhannagar on 21 January, while Rajya Sabha MP Pradip Bhattacharya will conduct it from Bagdogra from 22 January. State Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and other central and state leadership will guide the rally from the Dagapur playground to Kurseong on 23 January.

According to party leaders, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, former Union minister and senior party leader Jairam Ramesh and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijaya Singh are among those likely to be present. A number of apolitical persons, medical practitioners, cultural activists, and Left-leaning intellectuals had participated in the rally after it reached Kolkata on 2 January