Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra (BJY) received an overwhelming and grand ceremonial welcome as it reached Rajasthan from Jhalawar district’s Chanwali village on Sunday.

Chief Minister, Ashok Gehlot, State President Govind Singh Dotasara, former Deputy CM Sachin Pilot, along with several ministers and senior leaders received Gandhi at Chanwali along the Rajasthan-MP interstate border.

A ‘Dhawaj Vandan’, an exchange of flag ceremony between former Madhya Pradesh CM, Kamal Nath and Rajasthan Chief Minister, Ashok Gehlot, with state Congress president Govind Singh Dotasara took place at the bordering village.

Amid performance of the Sahariya Dance to welcome BJY troupe, the former Congress president, CM Gehlot, former Deputy CM Sachin Pilot, state president Dotasara and scores of other congress leaders danced by holding each others’ hands. Significantly, Sachin Pilot and Ashok Gehlot also danced together holding each other’s hands. The yatra in Rajasthan stopped at Chanwali intersection only.

Addressing the gathering, Gandhi said, “I want to remove fear from the hearts of BJP-RSS people. And if fear vanishes, love will come automatically. I hate neither BJP nor RSS, but I like to unite fearless society in the country. I will not let them (RSS and BJP) spread hatred and fear anywhere in the country. ”

Every state, every city, every village helped the yatra a lot. People didn’t have to pay a single penny, people refused to take it. The people of India gave a lot of love to the Yatra, he recalled, saying “Mujhe dukh ho raha hai, Madhya Pradesh ko chorete huai, kintu mujhe khushi hai ki main Rajasthan mein aa gaya hoon ( I am sad that I am leaving MP, however I am happy I have reached Rajasthan)”, he said.

Gandhi added, “It is difficult to understand people and India from a chopper or an aeroplane because you do not touch and realise the feelings of labour, children, farmers and people walking on the street. When you shake the hands of the people then you realise the their  hardship and cracks in his hands because they works in the field.”

“I got a number of messages on my mobile to shift BJY from 6 am to 7 or 8 am, I said no way. We should know how a farmer works in the field in the wee hours and how other labourers get to work”, Gandhi remarked.

Gandhi will start the yatra on Monday morning from Kali Talai area in Vasundhara Raje’s constituency of Jhalawar and would be joined by Chief Minister, PCC President, senior leader Pilot along with hundreds of party leaders and workers. Yatra will pass through 18 assembly constituencies of 6 districts covering Jhalwar, Kota, Bundi, Sawaimadhopur, Dausa, and Alwar. These districts are dominated by Gurjar, Meena, and SC-ST vote banks.