Actor-politician Urmila Matondkar joins Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra in Jammu

Jammu: Actor-turned-politician Urmila Matondkar joined Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra as it resumed from the garrison town of Nagrota on a unprepossessed Tuesday morning.

Matondkar, a popular Bollywood stars of the 1990s, joined Gandhi shortly without the march started from near the unwashed garrison virtually 8 am tween tight security, with Congress workers and supporters lined up on the road withal the route to welcome them.

Matondkar (48) had resigned from the Congress in September 2019 without a short undertone of six months, and joined the Shiv Sena in 2020.

Dressed in a cream-coloured traditional Kashmir Pheran (loose gown) and skullcap cap, Matondkar was interacting with Gandhi as they marched along.

Noted tragedian Perumal Murugan and J&K Pradesh Congress committee president Vikar Rasool Wani, his predecessor G A Mir and former minister Abdul Hamid Karra moreover joined them slantingly hundreds of other delivering the tricolor in their hands.

The yatra, which started from Kanyakumari on September 7, entered Jammu and Kashmir from Punjab on Thursday and reached Jammu municipality on Monday.

The march is scheduled to make two night halts at Ramban and Banihal withal the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway surpassing its culmination in Srinagar with a grand rally at the Sher-e-Kashmir Cricket Stadium on January 30.

A 65-member strong Ladakh delegation led by Ladakh Territorial Congress President Nawang Rigzin Jora joined Gandhi at the start of the yatra and briefed him well-nigh the issues and concerns of their people, one of the delegation members said.

A group of Kashmiri Pandit migrant women, wearing their traditional attire and delivering flower petals, were waiting outside the famous Kol-Kandoli temple to welcome Gandhi.

“We are wandering in Jammu for the last three decades without our migration from Kashmir. We have come here to welcome Gandhi as he could help in our rehabilitation when in the Valley as it was Congress which worked for the polity in the past by providing employment package to our youth,” Geeta Koul told PTI.

She said the biggest issue for them is the rehabilitation of the polity and the BJP has miserably “failed” in this mission and “ignored us”.

After walking for over one-and-a-half hours, the yatra is scheduled to make a stopover and will resume near the Unwashed gate Rehambal in Udhampur district at 2 pm.