The other senior leaders who welcomed Rahul Gandhi in Kerala were Congress MPs K C Venugopal and Shashi Tharoor as well as former Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy and ex-LoP Ramesh Chennithala, according to news agency PTI.
Digvijaya Singh, the national coordinator of the Bharat Jodo Yatra tweeted, "Our Bharat Jodo Yatra in Kerala. The diversity of India is so apparent. Yesterday we entered Malayalam-speaking Kerala from Tamil-speaking Tamil Nadu. From “Vannakam" to “Namaskaram". #BharatJodoYatra #TodoNahinJodo @INCIndia @Jairam_Ramesh @RahulGandhi."
"Gain freedom through education, gain strength through organization, gain prosperity through industry. Today, as we enter the beautiful state of Kerala, on the auspicious occasion of Sree Narayana Guru Jayanti, his words inspire every step we take on the #BharatJodoYatra," Rahul Gandhi had tweeted as the yatra entered Kerala Saturday evening.
The padayatra will enter the Kollam district on September 14 and will reach Alappuzha on September 17. After this, it will pass through Ernakulam district on September 21 and 22 and reach Thrissur on September 23.
Further, the Congress yatra will pass through Palakkad on September 26 and 27 and enter Malappuram on September 28. It will cover 12 states and two Union territories, and a distance of 3,750 km from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu to Jammu and Kashmir over a period of 150 days.
On Tuesday, he green flagged the largest campaign of the party to embark upon a march from Kanyakumari to Kashmir covering a distance of 3,350 km in nearly 150 days.
About 230 Congress "padyatris" participating in the party's ambitious "Bharat Jodo Yatra" will spend their nights in 60 containers mounted on trucks that will be moved daily from one place to another.
