Ekta Yatra

rdf:langString Ekta Yatra

rdf:langString Ekta Yatra (English: National Integration Rally) is the name of two political yatras or rallies led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India. The first began in 1991, following the 1990 Ram Rath Yatra. The second began in 2011. Each rally travelled through various Indian states and ended with the unfurling of the flag of India in what was then the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The 1991 Ekta Yatra was led by BJP President Murli Manohar Joshi and was intended to signal that BJP supported national unity and opposed separatist movements. It began on 11 December in Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu and visited 14 states. Other notable participants included Narendra Modi, who helped organize the rally, and Anandiben Patel. The rally's final stop to hoist the Indian flag in Jammu and Kashmir on 26 January 1992 was considered to have minimal success, as few locals participated. The 2011 Ekta Yatra was led by BJP youth wing national president and Lok Sabha member of Parliament Anurag Thakur. The rally started in Kolkata, West Bengal on 12 January, travelled through Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, and Haryana, and ended with the unfurling of the flag on 26 January in Lal Chowk, a city square in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir.