Congress MP Rahul Gandhi visited his father and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s memorial in Tamil Nadu’s Sriperumbudur ahead of launching the party’s ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ from Kanyakumari on Wednesday.

Gandhi will also attend an event at the Mahatma Gandhi Mandapam in Kanyakumari where Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin will hand over a Khadi national flag to him for the launch of the yatra, informed party sources.

The yatra which will be around 3,500 kilometers long has been dubbed by the Congress as the longest march in the country in over the last century. It will be launched at around 5 pm today with a rally and the ‘padyatra’ or march will begin from Thursday morning.

Congress workers in thousands along with leaders will walk around six-seven hours every day to cover 12 states and two union territories. All state unit presidents and Congress Legislature Party leaders will hold the yatra in their respective states. It will be completed in around five months.

According to reports, Rahul Gandhi will walk all the way from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. Speaking earlier, he had said that this yatra is like a ‘tapasya’ for him to unite the nation against rising social polarization and centralization in India.

The party has said that the yatra is the party’s biggest ever ‘Jan Samparka programme’ during which they will try to connect with the people at the grassroot level.