Rahul Gandhi is on day 57 of Congress’ Bharat Jodo Yatra. He participated in the traditional festival of Telangana, the Bonalu Festival. He took a heavy rope and whipped himself as he donned the avatar of Potharaju. Potharaju is an important figure in Bonalu festival and is the brother of the goddess Mahankali, who wields a whip to protect the goddess.
During Bonalu, women walk in procession to temples led by ‘potharajus’ who dances to the sounds and whips themselves and they are considered to be the brother of seven sister goddesses – different forms of the goddess Mahankali.
Rahul Gandhi is participating in the Bharat Jodo Yatra, which is an ongoing mass movement started by the Indian National Congress. Rahul Gandhi is orchestrating the movement by mobilising the party cadre and general public into walking by foot from Kanyakumari, the southern tip of the peninsula, to the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, spanning 3,570 kilometres over 150 days.
Currenlty, Rahul Gandhi is in Telangana and will cover 19 Assembly and 7 Parliamentary constituencies in the state spanning a total distance of 375 km in the state, before entering Maharashtra on November 7. The yatra will take a one-day break on November 4. He is meeting the intellectuals, leaders of different communities, including personalities from the sports, business and entertainment sectors during the party campaign in Telangana.