After braving the chilling winters in most of North India in a T-shirt during his Bharat Jodo Yatra, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday ditched his tees for a jacket for the first time as the march entered Kashmir.
Congress’ 3,570 km Bharat Jodo Yatra, which began on September 7 from Tamil Nadu’s Kanyakumari entered Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday evening, for the last leg of its journey.
The sub-zero temperature in the snow-laden valley necessitated the change in the much talked about sartorial choices of the leader.
During the chilling winter in North India, the Lok Sabha MP from Kerala’s Wayanad kept on walking in a t-shirt even when the mercury dropped to 4 degrees Celcius.
He wore a jacket on Friday morning when he began the yatra in Kathua. He was joined in the yatra by Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray) MP Sanjay Raut in Kathua.
The T-shirt became a topic of discussion as many wondered how Gandhi was enduring the chilling Delhi winters.
Explaining his stance on why he preferred T-shirts over any other attire, Rahul Gandhi had said “T-shirt hi chal rahi hai aur jab tak chal rahi hai, chalenge”
The former Congress president made headlines after wearing a plain white t-shirt (half sleeves) while visiting the memorials of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajiv Gandhi, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and others on December 26.
Dressed in a t-shirt and slacks, he appeared oblivious to the biting cold of New Delhi.
Asked if he did not feel the cold, he replied, “They keep asking me how I do not feel cold… but they do not ask this question to the farmer, the worker, or the poor children.”
The Bharat Jodo Yatra has passed through Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi, Punjab, and Himachal Pradesh.
The yatra will conclude in Srinagar on January 30 after hoisting the national flag.