SRINAGAR: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday said the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra was not for winning elections but to counter the hate spread by the BJP and the RSS in the country.

Addressing a rally to mark the culmination of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, amid heavy snowfall, he also said Gandhi was determined to restore Jammu and Kashmir statehood. ''The yatra was not for winning elections but against hate. BJP people are spreading hate in the country. Rahul Gandhi has proven that he can unite the country from Kanyakumari to Kashmir on issues like unemployment and inflation,'' Kharge said at the rally here to mark the culmination of the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Jammu and Kashmir's Srinagar.

Kharge alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the RSS and the BJP were pursuing the policy widening the poor-rich divide in the country.

''(Prime Minister Narendra) Modiji, RSS and BJP want to keep poor people poor and to make rich, richer. Ten per cent people are looting 72 per cent wealth of the country while 50 per cent own just three per cent,'' he said.

While addressing the rally, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said she was also apprehensive initially if people will join the yatra.

''My brother has been walking for the last five months from Kanyakumari. Earlier I also thought, it was a long journey whether people will come out. But they came out everywhere. They came out because people of the country have spirit for unity,'' she said.

She said Gandhi, as he was entering Jammu and Kashmir, sent a message to their mother Sonia Gandhi saying that he was going home. ''The whole country supported the yatra. The politics that is happening in the country cannot benefit the country. The politics that divides cannot benefit the country. Those who walked have shown a ray of hope,'' she added.