Describing the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra as "Bharat Todo Yatra", the BJP on Sunday said the Congress should first provide justice to the leaders deserting it and to the people wronged by its erstwhile governments instead of promoting Rahul Gandhi and trying to maintain the hold of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday embarked on the Manipur-to-Mumbai yatra in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, due in April-May. It came on a day former Union minister Milind Deora quit the Congress and joined the the Shiv Sena led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

Union minister Anurag Thakur described the yatra as a hoax and said senior Congress leaders were not getting justice and were joining other outfits.

Thakur referred to the exit of leaders such as Kapil Sibal, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Hardik Patel, Jyotiraditya Scindia, RPN Singh and Sunil Jakhar from the Congress.

"There is a long list of leaders who have left the Congress as they are not getting justice in the party. Now, Milind Deora too has left the Congress," the senior BJP leader said.

"The Nyay Yatra of the Congress is a hoax. Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi talk of justice to the people, but the reality is Congress leaders themselves are deprived of justice," Thakur said.

On the contrary, Thakur said, everyone in the BJP gets due respect and that is the reason why "someone in the party is a chief minister, someone is a Union minister, someone is an MP and someone is an MLA".

The Union minister said people have reposed their faith in the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and were keen to align with him.

Wondering if the yatra was meant to unite India or divide it, Union minister Kiren Rijiju said in a post on X, "Rahul Gandhi is going to the Northeast but has he apologised for supporting those gangs who openly want to cut the Northeast from the rest of the Country?" Gandhi has "supported the tukde-tukde gang", so he is doing drama of Bharat Jodo Yatra, the MP from Arunachal West said, sharing a video of now-jailed student leader Sharjeel Imam's remarks on the Northeast.

BJP national general secretary Dushyant Gautam alleged that the Congress has started the east-to-west Bharat Jodo Nyaya Yatra months after its south-to-north Bharat Jodo Yatra to maintain "dynasticism" in the party and promote Gandhi.

He also used Deora's exit from the Congress to take a potshot at it. "All those leaving Sonia Gandhi's Congress are bringing peace to the soul of Mahatma Gandhi who wanted the Congress to be dissolved," he told PTI.

"I don't know what kind of spirit takes over when he speaks. Nobody understands what he says. I think it's Mahatma Gandhi's 'aatma' who repeatedly tells him to finish off the Congress," Gautam said, in a swipe at Rahul Gandhi.

What kind of a 'nyay yatra' is it, he asked.

"Are you doing it to render justice to lakh of people who died due to the Partition of the country by your forefathers, to those who died in the Bhopal gas leak incident, or to the Sikhs who were killed in the 1984 riots?" he asked.

All of them are demanding justice from him, Gautam added.

The BJP leader claimed the Congress' entire effort was to see that "the mother and son get justice" and Gandhi "progresses anyhow".

"On the one hand sons of Bharat Mata are contributing to the progress of the country and on the other Sonia Gandhi is working for the progress of her son. And the results are visible today," he said, referring to Deora's exit.

There are two sections in the Congress, Gautam said, adding one one owes allegiance to the Gandhi family and is standing by it and the other "owes allegiance to the country and is joining Modi ji for the progress of India to make it a developed country by 2047." All these nationalist people will continue to desert the Congress, the BJP leader said.

On the opposition's claim that the BJP was scared of Gandhi's 'nyay yatra', Gautam said, "We are not scared. They took out yatra earlier also. They lost three states. We gain from it." "Whenever Rahul Gandhi comes out, he works as our pracharak," he added.

In a post on X, BJP IT department head Amit Malviya took a dig at the Congress' yatra and said Gandhi should first provide justice to his party leaders.

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