LUCKNOW: Days after Akhilesh Yadav said he hasn't been invited for the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, the Congress on Tuesday extended an invitation to the Samajwadi Party chief to join the Rahul Gandhi-led yatra in its Uttar Pradesh leg.
Accepting the invitation extended by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Yadav said he will join the yatra either in Amethi or Raebareli.
"Akhilesh Yadav has received an invitation of Mallikarjun Kharge to join Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra which enters UP on February 16. Yadav has given consent to join the yatra either in Amethi or Raebareli," the SP said in a statement.
Yadav said he expected that the Nyay Yatra would strengthen the 'PDA' strategy of the SP and take forward its agitation for "social justice and mutual harmony".
An SP coinage, PDA means 'Pichchde (backward), Dalit, and Alpsankhyak' (minority).
Asked whether he would participate in the yatra, Yadav had said on Saturday, "The problem is that many big events take place, but we don't get an invite."
Tagging a video on Yadav's remarks, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh had said on Sunday the detailed route and programme of the Nyay Yatra in Uttar Pradesh was being prepared and would be finalised in a day or two.
Both the Congress and the SP are members of the opposition INDIA bloc.
The SP recently offered 11 seats to the Congress for the upcoming parliamentary polls in UP which sends maximum 80 MPs in Lok Sabha.
The Congress has faced heat recently from INDIA constituents such as the TMC which has attacked it over seat sharing and on carrying out the yatra. TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had stayed away from the yatra while it was in her state.