Congress leader Rahul Gandhi received a warm welcome when his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, on its way to Ranchi via Bokaro and Ramgarh, reached Dhanbad on Sunday.

“We got a very encouraging response when I undertook Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir last year to unite the nation and stand against the hatred spread by BJP and RSS cadres,” he said while addressing a public meeting from an open vehicle at the local Bank More in the morning.

They succeeded in convincing people that the Congress opens nafrat ke bazar mein mohabbat ki dukan (a shop of love in a market of hate), he claimed as the audience burst into applause.

“This time we added another word, nyay (justice), in the current yatra from Manipur to Maharashtra to demand justice against certain injustices like economic injustice that are being done towards the people,” Rahul said and went on to elaborate.

“This yatra is aimed at standing against the injustice of attempted transfer of the country’s wealth to a few chosen millionaires and also to protest against the current unemployment caused by the introduction of GST and demonetisation,” he elaborated.

This present government at the Centre is also selling out PSUs to private parties that robbed ordinary people like the tribals of the scope of getting some jobs, Rahul alleged, adding he also apprehended that the PSUs in the steel sector that are based in Jharkhand would also not be spared.

On the way to Bokaro, Rahul also stopped at Godhar Kali Basti and interacted with local people while sharing a seat with some children on a khatia, a locally woven rope-cot with a wooden frame.

While Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh was accompanying Rahul during the Jharkhand leg of the yatra, Ghulam Ahmed Mir, the minder of the party’s state unit and state president Rajesh Thakur also joined him.

But the Congress MLAs could not join him as they were camping in Hyderabad and would return to Ranchi to participate in the trust vote called by Champai Soren, the newly appointed chief minister of the state.

But Pradeep Yadav, Congress MLA from Poreyahat, who did not go to Hyderabad joined the Yatra in Santhal Paragana on Saturday.