New Delhi [India], Oct 1 : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has extended its Gandhi Sankalp Yatra by a period of three months, according to a circular issued to the party leaders.
According to the circular sent to the leaders, the Gandhi Sankalp Yatra will now be a 120-day exercise and will end on January 31, 2020, instead of October. Earlier, it was scheduled to be held between October 2 and 31.
Under the Gandhi Sankalp Yatra program, the BJP is planning to propagate Bapu's ideals and principles of non-violence, Swaraj and simplicity as part of to mark his 150th birth anniversary on October 2.
The party has formed a 10-member committee under the chairmanship of General Secretary Arun Singh and consisting of leaders such as Nityanand Rai among others to look after the four-month-long program.
Posters, banners and kits for the programs to be held during the yatra will be directly sent to the state units from the party headquarters.
According to the circular, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will kick-off this programme from Gujarat, simultaneously, with the other top leaders from the party who will start it from the BJP headquarters in New Delhi.
All the party's Lok Sabha MPs have been instructed to be in their respective constituencies on October 2 for the start of the program.
The constituencies in which the MPs are not from BJP have been allotted to the Rajya Sabha MPs, amongst which Union Ministers Piyush Goyal has been made in-charge of Hyderabad, Prakash Javadekar in Delhi, Nirmala Sitharaman will be in Chennai among others.
Prime Minister Modi will be leading the campaign in Delhi, after paying tributes to Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat on his 150th birth anniversary. He will then reach Gujarat and will take part in the various programs scheduled for the day.
BJP President Amit Shah had earlier interacted with party officials, chief ministers, state presidents and MPs through video conferencing and laid out the party's extensive plans to celebrate the birth anniversary celebrations of the Mahatma.
Party's working President Jagat Prakash Nadda and other senior leaders too had asked party leaders to start campaigns in their constituencies to propagate Mahatma Gandhi's ideals, including on cleanliness, Khadi and tree plantation.
"The BJP is committed to implementing the ideals and principles of Gandhi. We have to reach every household with Gandhi's message of cleanliness, non-violence, swadeshi, swaraj and saadgi (simplicity)," Shah had said earlier.
The party leaders have been asked to hold rallies, public meetings, press conferences and hold programs of 'Prabhat Pheri'.
( With inputs from ANI )