Miffed at KC Venugopal's candidature, Left leaders to stay away from INDIA rally

New Delhi/ Mumbai: Leaders of the CPI and CPM have decided not to take part in the INDIA rally scheduled at Shivaj Park in Mumbai on Sunday evening. They have openly announced their opposition against the Congress's decision to field Rajy Sabha MP K C Venugopal and Wayand sitting MP Rahul Gandhi from Kerala. 

Earlier, leaders including Sitaram Yechury and Prakash Karat were invited to the rally, but they will stay away from the event. They say that Venugopal was sent to Kerala to capture CPM's seat and this goes against the understanding of the front.

The opposition INDIA bloc is holding the rally on Sunday evening in a show of strength. Jharkhand CM Champai Soren, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray and his son Aditya Thackeray are expected to participate in the rally.

A day after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi concluded his 63-day-old 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra' in Mumbai by paying tributes to Dr B R Ambedkar at his memorial Chaityabhoomi in central Mumbai and reading the Preamble of the Constitution, he undertook the 'Nyay Sankalp Padyatra' from Mani Bhavan, the home of Mahatma Gandhi in south Mumbai.

His sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Tushar Gandhi, the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, along with Congress supporters joined the foot march which would continue till the August Kranti Maidan, where the Quit India movement started in 1942 during India's struggle for independence from the British rule. Members of some of the opposition INDIA bloc constituents joined Rahul Gandhi in the padyatra. 

The 'Nyay Yatra', a mass outreach movement ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, had commenced from strife-torn Manipur on January 14.