Day after Nitish's U-turn, Rahul's rally enters Bihar

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra' on Monday entered Bihar through Kishanganj.

The Yatra comes a day after the Congress was left high and dry with former ally Nitish Kumar, the Bihar chief minister, making a return to the BJP-led NDA.

Kishanganj, a district in the Seemanchal region of the state with a majority Muslim population, is also a party stronghold.

State Congress president Akhilesh Prasad Singh and other senior party leaders welcomed Gandhi in Bihar. This is his first visit to the state since the assembly poll campaign of 2020.

Gandhi is scheduled to address a public meeting in Kishanganj and a big rally in the adjoining district of Purnea on Tuesday and another one in Katihar a day later, according to Congress legislature party leader Shakil Ahmed Khan.

He will be leaving for West Bengal on Thursday through Araria district and will return to Bihar a few days later via Jharkhand, Bihar Congress president Akhilesh Prasad Singh said.

According to leaders of the state Congress, the party's alliance partners in Bihar like RJD president Lalu Prasad and CPI(ML)-L general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya have been invited to the rally at Purnea.

Nitish Kumar, the JD(U) president with whom the Congress had shared power till he did a volte-face, was also extended an invitation which had been accepted by the veteran leader, the Congress claimed.