Bharat Jodo Yatra reaches Indore in MP; Rahul Gandhi seen helping wheelchair-bound man
Indore (PTI): The Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi reached Indore on Sunday on the fifth day of its Madhya Pradesh leg. People from different sections of society including a differently-abled man, Manohar, also joined the foot march and Gandhi was seen pushing his wheelchair to some distance.
The man said he told Gandhi that the country now needs a change. After a night halt at Mhow, the birthplace of Dr B R Ambedkar, the yatra participants resumed the march on Sunday morning.
The yatra passed through the suburban area of Rau and reached Indore. A red carpet was rolled out to welcome when the march reached Rau.
Indore Commissioner of Police H C Mishra said 1,400 personnel have been deployed in the city to provide security to the yatra and barricades have been put up at various places. Twelve dilapidated houses in the densely populated Rajwada area with narrow streets have been temporarily evacuated to avoid the possibility of any untoward incident during the march, he said.
Earlier, a sweet shop in Juni area of Indore received an anonymous letter by post on November 17, threatening bomb blasts in Indore city during the yatra.
The letter, which referred to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, had also threatened assassinations of Rahul Gandhi and MP Congress chief Kamal Nath. The police had arrested a person in this connection. The Congress's Bharat Jodo Yatra, a mass contact initiative, will take a night halt at Chimanbagh Ground in the city, officials said.
As per the initial plan of the Congress, Gandhi and other yatra participants were to be accommodated at the city's Khalsa Stadium. But the plan could not materialise following a controversy.
A row had erupted after Kamal Nath, facing allegations in connection with the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, was felicitated by organisers at a Sikh religious event held at Khalsa College in Indore on November 8. After Nath left the venue, famous kirtan singer Manpreet Singh Kanpuri had lashed out at the organisers for inviting the Congress leader.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
