Lucknow, Feb 11 : The Bharat Jodo Yatra (BJY) of the Congress in Uttar Pradesh has failed to work as an adhesive.

The BJY, in fact, has further fragmented the beleaguered party in UP.  The BJY travelled through western UP briefly for three days and though it drew large crowds, it served to intensify infighting within the party.  To begin with, the majority of the senior party leaders were not invited to join the yatra. These leaders were mainly Rahul Gandhi loyalists and were allegedly kept away on the instructions of Priyanka Gandhi's team that now manages the party in UP.  Former Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) president Raj Babbar was not allowed to join the BJY in UP. He later joined the yatra and met Rahul Gandhi in Haryana.  Similarly, former UPCC president Nirmal Khatri was nowhere to be see during the UP leg of the yatra.  A former MP said, "Nothing could be more shameful than the fact that a group of so-called leaders deliberately kept us away from the yatra. This explains why none of the veteran leaders were seen during the yatra in the state. The present UPCC president Brij Lal Khabri does not even know the who's who of the Congress here and did not even seem concerned about the presence, rather absence, of senior leaders in the yatra."