Bharat Jodo Yatra Enters Palakkad District

The morning leg of the march, which entered its 19th day, will cover 12.3 km and halt at Pattambi. The Congress party tweeted that the yatra entered Palakkad district with "excitement and hope".

"...And we can't wait to start this journey with you," it said in the tweet. Senior Congress leader K Muraleedharan and Leader of Opposition in Kerala Assembly V D Satheesan joined Gandhi in the morning session of the yatra.

Hundreds of people waited on both sides of the road to meet Gandhi. A group of young girls presented the Congress leader with a framed drawing of himself.

"Couldn't have asked for a better start to the Padyatra. The young minds are coming out in large numbers to bless @RahulGandhi Ji and all the Padtyatris.

We owe them a brighter future. Towards achieving our goal. #BharatJodoYatra," the party said in a tweet along with a photo of the young girls holding Gandhi's drawing.

The Congress leader will garland a Mahatma Gandhi statue on the way to Pattambi, the party said. The yatra will resume at 5 pm and conclude at Koppam, it said. The Congress party's 3,570 km and 150-day long foot march started from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu on September 7 and will conclude in Jammu and Kashmir.

The yatra, which entered Kerala on the evening of September 10, will go through the state covering 450 km, touching seven districts in 19 days before entering Karnataka on October 1.?

(With PTI Inputs)