Akhilesh Yadav joins Rahul Gandhi’s yatra days after finalising seat-sharing deal

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav joined the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Uttar Pradesh’s Agra on Sunday.

This comes days after Congress and the Samajwadi Party came to an agreement on the seat-sharing talks for Uttar Pradesh.

For days, Akhilesh Yadav had refused to join the yatra declaring that he would only participate once the seat-sharing with Congress is finalised.

On Sunday, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi welcomed the Samajwadi Party chief to the yatra and said, “Today is a very happy day”.

All three addressed the crowd gathered in Agra as Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav joined hands to present a united front.

Akhilesh Yadav said, “In the coming days, the biggest challenge is to save democracy, and the Constitution, to fulfil the dreams of Dr BR Ambedkar, that have been ruined by the BJP… Today, there is only one message to be given — ‘BJP haatao, desh ko bachao, sankat mitao’ (Remove BJP, save the country and end the crisis).”

He added that he is hopeful that the INDIA bloc and PDA (pichre, Dalit and alpashankhak) will work to defeat the BJP-led NDA in the coming days.