Panaji: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will be in Margao on Sunday for the concluding leg of his party’s ‘Goy Rakhon Yatra’, an outreach campaign that the party has positioned as a prelude to its push for the 2027 Goa Assembly elections, PTI reported.
According to Manikrao Thakare, the Congress’s in-charge for Goa, Gandhi will reach the state in the afternoon, join party workers on a walk through Margao and then speak at a public gathering in the town. The yatra, which began on September 22, is being led by Leader of the Opposition in the Goa Assembly Yuri Alemao and Goa Congress president Girish Chodankar, and will end on Sunday.
A Congress functionary said Gandhi’s presence would give the campaign greater visibility beyond Goa. Alemao indicated that the party would use the occasion to outline its next steps. “Gandhi will announce the party’s future course of action during his address in Goa,” he told reporters.
The Congress has described the yatra as an effort to protect Goa’s land, identity, environment and cultural heritage. Over its course, the party said it covered all 40 Assembly constituencies and focused on concerns such as land conversion, joblessness, corruption and public safety, as reported by The New Indian Express.
Alemao claimed the response to the campaign had been strong. “We have received so much love during the yatra. Everyone joined the yatra in their own way,” he said.
Chodankar said Gandhi shared a close bond with Goa and had demonstrated it repeatedly. He also accused the BJP of attempting to obstruct Sunday’s programme. “There is a special storm that has started in the country, and the BJP has no might to stop it,” he said, adding that the party had faced hurdles in organising the event.
“But we overcame all of it, and Gandhi will be addressing a public meeting in Margao,” Chodankar said.
Coming months before the 2027 Assembly elections, the Congress is seeking to convert the campaign into organisational momentum, particularly in seats currently held by the ruling BJP.