Amid tension with TMC Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra enters Bengal at Cooch Behar

Cooch Behar: Congress' 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra' led by Rahul Gandhi entered West Bengal from Assam on Thursday morning.

He was welcomed by state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.

The Yatra entered West Bengal through Bakshirhat in Cooch Behar district in the northern part of the state.

After the handover of the flag, the Yatra will head towards Khagrabari Chowk in Cooch Behar district, where Gandhi will address a public meeting.

After passing through Tufanganj and Cooch Behar town, Gandhi will conduct a padayatra from Maa Bhawani Chowk in Cooch Behar.

The Yatra will continue by bus at Gokshadanga before reaching Falakata in Alipurduar district for an overnight halt.

Following a two-day hiatus on January 26-27, it will navigate through Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar, Uttar Dinajpur, and Darjeeling districts before entering Bihar on January 29.

Re-entering West Bengal on January 31 via Malda, it will pass through Murshidabad, both Congress stronghold districts, before departing the state on February 1.

The Bengal leg of the yatra spans 523 km across six districts and six Lok Sabha constituencies — Darjeeling, Raigunj, North and South Malda, and two in Murshidabad — over five days.

This marks Gandhi's first visit to the state since the April-May 2021 assembly polls.

The Bengal leg of the Yatra began a day after Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee's announcement that her party will contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls independently in West Bengal.

Both Congress and the TMC are constituents of the INDIA bloc formed to take on the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in the 2024 Parliamentary elections.

The CPI (M) and Left parties, allies of the Congress within the state and the INDIA bloc at the national level, are expected to join the march.

However, TMC has decided to abstain, citing a lack of information about the Yatra.

The Yatra, which started in Manipur on January 14, is scheduled to cover 6,713 km in 67 days while passing through 110 districts in 15 states, before culminating in Mumbai on March 20.