Lucknow, Oct 31 The BJP will organise a ‘yatra’ from Jalandhar to Varanasi from November 18 to December 3 to mark the 650th birth anniversary of Sant Ravidas and spread his message of social harmony, a party leader said on Saturday.
The 2,558-km journey will pass through eight states and Union territories, BJP national vice-president Lal Singh Arya said at a meeting at the party’s state headquarters here.
The meeting was attended by BJP national general secretary and Uttar Pradesh in-charge Vinod Tawde, state party president and Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary, state general secretary (organisation) Dharampal Singh and the national president of the party’s Scheduled Castes Morcha, Shivesh Ram, according to a statement issued by the UP BJP.
Arya said the ‘yatra’ would be the fourth phase of the ‘Samarasta Sankalp Abhiyan’, a nationwide initiative being organised to mark the 650th birth anniversary of Sant Shiromani Guru Ravidas Maharaj.
The objective is to spread Ravidas’ message of social harmony, human welfare, dignity of labour and goodwill, he said.
The ‘yatra’ will begin in Jalandhar on November 18 and conclude in Varanasi on December 3. It will pass through Punjab, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, Arya said.
He said eight programmes would be organised daily during the journey. These would include cleanliness drives at major stopovers, installation of portraits of Sant Ravidas in temples and interactive sessions with prominent members of the Scheduled Castes.
The participants would also pay tribute to historical figures by garlanding their statues, he said.
The itinerary would include welcome events at the assembly constituency level, indoor gatherings in districts and major cities, and public meetings in the evenings, accompanied by ‘samrasta bhoj’ or community harmony feasts, Arya said.
In Uttar Pradesh, the ‘yatra’ will pass through Saharanpur, Baghpat, Meerut, Hapur, Ghaziabad, Mathura, Agra, Firozabad, Etawah, Auraiya, Kanpur, Unnao, Lucknow, Raebareli and Prayagraj before reaching Varanasi, he added.
(PTI News)
