Rahul Gandhi will launch the party’s nationwide programme ‘Jai Bapu, Jai Bhim, Jai Samvidhan’ on Monday in Mhow, the birthplace of Dr B. R. Ambedkar.
Gandhi will be accompanied by party’s national president Mallikarjun Kharge and Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Over one lakh Congress workers including CWC members will attend the rally.
Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Jitu Patwari said that the rally will be historic with lakhs of party workers from the state expected to participate. He said every Congress worker is excited and eager to raise their voice against the insult to Ambedkar from his birthplace.
“The rally aims to safeguard the people’s rights, particularly ‘freedom of expression,’ and to protect the Constitution, which is a commitment of our leader Rahul Gandhi and has been consistently raising this issue,” Patwari added.
With this campaign the Congress will target the BJP for insulting freedom fighters and undermining the Constitution. The party will also try to regain lost ground in Madhya Pradesh.
The campaign will have padayatras and rallies in villages, blocks, districts and states. Leaders from national to grassroots will lead this initiative. Seminars, public meetings and rallies will happen from one village to another.
Interestingly, a day before the Congress programme, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav visited Dr Ambedkar’s birthplace to pay tribute on Republic Day on Sunday. During his visit he also targeted Rahul Gandhi saying, "For some people, Dr Ambedkar's birthplace is a tourist place."
A controversy has already erupted over the restrictions on political speeches at Rahul Gandhi’s rally in Mhow by the local administration. The grand old party has termed it “undemocratic”.
The sub-divisional magistrate (SDM), Mhow, has put eight conditions while granting permission to Congress to hold the party programme. One of the condition is that party leaders attending the programme should not make political speeches or comments against any religion. The order says that the organisers should ensure that no political speeches or any comment against religion are made at the party programme.
This is the first political programme of Congress in Madhya Pradesh after the party’s crushing defeat in the state Assembly elections in November 2023 when the central leadership had replaced Kamal Nath with Jitu Patwari as the new state unit chief.
