Sangli, Oct 16 (IANS): The 66-day long ‘Shiv Swarajya Yatra’ of the Nationalist Congress Party (SP) ended with a massive public rally, after traversing 7,365 km across 19 districts in the state, party leaders said here on Wednesday.

Led by NCP (SP) State President Jayant R. Patil, the Shiv Swarajya Yatra kicked off on August 9 from Shivneri Fort in Pune – the birthplace of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj – and coinciding with the 82nd anniversary of the Quit India Movement and the World Indigenous Day celebrations.

Marking the closure of the Yatra, NCP (SP) President Sharad Pawar, Patil and other top leaders addressed a huge public rally at Islampur town in Sangli, kick-starting the party’s campaign for the November 20 Assembly elections.

During the long-winding Yatra that touched the NCP (SP)’s major bastions, Shirur MP Amol R. Kolhe also participated and the top leaders exposed the various misdeeds of the MahaYuti government of Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party-Nationalist Congress Party.

The chief among them was the alarming law-and-order situation in the state, growing atrocities against women, the runaway inflation, spiralling unemployment, flight of industries from Maharashtra, the burning problems of farmers, etc, at scores of big and small public meetings held en route.

A party leader in Mumbai said that the Yatra directly or indirectly touched more than a couple of crores of people in rural and semi-urban areas of the state, giving a huge boost to the party’s prospects in the upcoming elections.

Shortly before winding up the Yatra, Patil prayed at the Sri Tirtha Kshetra and Lord Ganesh Temple in Wai, also known as ‘Dakshin Kashi’(Satara), and offered respects at the Krishnamai Temple in Sangli, both situated on the banks of the River Krishna flowing through the two districts.

He said that the illegal MahaYuti regime has only brought misery and tears to the lakhs of distressed farmers in the state by depriving them of minimum support prices for their produce including cotton, and must be stopped from coming to power in the upcoming Assembly polls.

Besides Patil and Kolhe, other bigwigs like Ahmednagar MP Nilesh Lanke, Madha MP Dhairyasheel Mohite-Patil, Samarjitsinh Ghatge, Suhas Jambhle, Nitin Sawant, MLAs Shashikant Shinde and Balasaheb Patil, Sunil Gavhane, NCP Youth state President Mahebub Shaikh, party’s Kolhapur Rural chief V. B. Patil, Nanda Kupekar, and more remained present at the rally.