NCP chief Sharad Pawar to take part in "Bharat Jodo Yatra"

Baramati: Sharad Pawar, the chief of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), said that he would participate in Congress's Bharat Jodo Yatra. He told reporters on Sunday that the Yatra is an attempt to bring harmony to society, PTI reported.

He said that Maharashtra Congress leaders Ashok Chavan and Balasaheb Thorat met him and invited him to take part in the Yatra that covers the length of India. The Yatra is to enter Maharashtra on November 7.

Bharat Jodo Yatra by the Congress is scheduled to cover 3,570 km in 150 days. It started on September 7 from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu and will conclude in Jammu and Kashmir.

The journey led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has covered four states so far, namely Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

Sharad Pawar said, "The Yatra is a Congress party programme. But through this initiative, an attempt is being made to bring harmony to society. So some of us from different parties will join the Yatra wherever possible when it is in the state."

When he was asked about the politics being unfolded over the elections of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), he scoffed at the query.

"One should not bring politics into some fields. Those who do it are ignorant. When I was the BCCI president, Gujarat's representative was (present prime minister) Narendra Modi, Arun Jaitley represented Delhi, while Anurag Thakur represented Himachal Pradesh. Our job is to provide facilities to players. We don't bother about other issues," he said.

World Cup winner Roger Binny was recently elected as the 36th president of the BCCI, taking over from Sourav Ganguly to run the world's richest cricket board. Meanwhile, Jay Shah, son of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, was re-elected as the secretary for a second successive term. The other office bearers who were elected unopposed included treasurer Ashish Shelar, vice-president Rajeev Shukla and joint secretary Devjit Saikia.