New Delhi: Dalit leader and newly elected MLA from Gujarat Jignesh Mevani and Assam peasant leader Akhil Gogoi will hold a 'social justice' rally here next week demanding the release of Dalit outfit Bhim Army's founder Chandrashekhar Azad, an organiser of the rally said.

The rally would also emphasise on educational rights, employment, livelihood and gender justice, former JNU students union president Mohit Kumar Pandey, one of the organisers of the rally, said in a statement.

The rally would begin from Parliament Street on January 9 and a large section of students from universities and colleges in Delhi are expected to participate, the statement said.

"It is audacious that the Yogi government is withdrawing 20,000 criminal cases against political leaders, including himself, while continuing to jail young people like Chandrashekhar and Dr. Kafeel on the basis of sheer sensationalism," Pandey said.

Women's groups, teachers' associations and Mevani- inpired activists from across the country are also expected to participate.

Azad, 30, was arrested in June last year from Himachal Pradesh for being the main accused in the Thakur-Dalit clash in Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur district.