Thiruvananthapuram: Congress stalwart Rahul Gandhi resumed the eighth day of the Congress' Bharat Jodo Yatra from Navayikkulam in Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday morning.

Rahul Gandhi paid respects to social reformer Sree Narayana Guru at Sivagiri mutt in Kerala before beginning the march from there.

The Yatra is currently moving through Kerala and will continue for the next 17 days.

The 3,500 km march from Kanyakumari to Kashmir will take 150 days to complete and pass through up to 12 states. The Yatra will depart from Kerala and go through the state for the following 18 days before arriving in Karnataka on September 30. Before moving north, it will spend 21 days in Karnataka. Every day, the Padyatra (march) will travel 25 kilometres.

On Tuesday, Rahul Gandhi stated that the goal of the Bharat Jodo Yatra is to unite Indians, regardless of religion or community, and to remind them that this is one nation, and that we will succeed if we stand together and show respect for one another.

A political controversy also started after Congress tweeted a picture of a pair of RSS shorts that were on fire. Tejasvi Surya, president of the Bharatiya Janata Party Yuva Morcha, claimed that the image showed how the Congress' electoral fortunes in the nation have been scorched by the fires it has previously fanned.

To free the nation from the bonds of hatred and repair the harm caused by the BJP-RSS, Congress earlier on Monday tweeted a photo of flame-lit "Khakhi" shorts with the caption, "Step by step, we will attain our goal."

The tweet was sent in recognition of today being Day 6 of the current Bharat Jodo Yatra.

Surya discussed prior acts of violence in a series of tweets, mentioning the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi and the 2002 Godhra event, in which Karsevaks were set afire. Rahul Gandhi, who is leading the Yatra and is now in Kerala, came under fire from the BJP politician, who accused him of "fighting against the Indian state."

Ajay Bhatt, a Union minister, salmmed Rahul Gandhi on Sunday after he met with controversial Catholic priest George Ponnaiah. He accused Gandhi of supporting those who want to divide India and claimed that Congress has opposed every move Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made, including the removal of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir and the surgical strikes in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

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