Mahatma shared a special bond with Rajahmundry

Rajahmundry: Mahatma Gandhi shared a special bond with Rajahmundry, the only city in Andhra Pradesh that he visited five times.
In 1921, Gandhi visited Rajahmundry for the first time. He stopped at the city while on his way from Vijayawada. He again visited the city in 1929 on his way to Gouthami Satyagraha Ashram in Sitanagaram located 24kms away from Rajahmundry and stayed at Mette Vari Meda.
Later in the 1930s, he returned to Rajahmundry, this time he was accompanied by his wife Kasturbha Gandhi. The couple travelled to Sitanagaram in a motorised boat where they spent two and a half days.
On January 10, 1946, which was the national leader’s last visit to Rajahmundry, he had addressed a large public meeting at the Rajahmundry railway station in which more than a lakh people participated. Freedom fighter Kala Venkata Rao had translated his speech from Hindi to Telugu.
Speaking about the visits to TOI, founder of Andhra Kesaru Yuvajana Samithi, YS Narasimha Rao, said Gandhi was fond of Rajahmundry. He said that he remembers seeing Gandhi at the public meet at Rajahmundry Railway Station when he was 10-years-old and was seated on his grandfather’s shoulders.
He also recalled that Gandhi had started to walk when the car, which was supposed to take him to Sitanagaram, was late.
He lamented that no elected representative in Rajahmundry after independence has bothered to set up a plaque commemorating the great leader’s visits to the city.

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