Bharat Jodo Yatra - A new lease of life for the Congress

Though the long-term effects of the yatra are yet to be seen, the perception of the Congress party and its main-man have seen a positive shift

By Anish Pathiyil

Chennai: The Bharat Jodo Yatra culminated on Monday, January 30, with Congress supremo and former president Rahul Gandhi unfurling the national flag at the iconic Lal Chowk in Srinagar, the scene where his great-grandfather and the country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had done the same, 75 years ago. The yatra, which spanned over 137 days and 4080 km across 12 Indian states, began on 7 September 2022 from Kanyakumari.

The intention of this yatra, according to Congress functionaries, was to unite the country against the decisive politics of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government which has been in power since 2014. The Congress, the primary opposition party, has been trying to revive itself since its electoral debacle in the 2019 elections and also in various state assembly elections, most recently in Gujarat and Punjab. The Bharat Jodo Yatra is the latest initiative to get the Congress back on track in competing with the BJP and its charismatic Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Unlike the BJP, the organisational strength of the Congress has weakened over the last few years. The general perception has been that the party is elitist in nature and gives voice only to second or sometimes third generation leaders rather than leaders that have developed from the grassroots. There was an urgent necessity to revamp the lower levels of the party and attract young workers and create a sustainable foundation from which to develop the party as the main contender for the government.

The Congress, which was losing ground in almost all states in terms of public perception as well as vote share, needed a unifying force to get its bandwagon back on track. The yatra provided the perfect platform for the senior leaders of the party to interact with the ground-level workers and motivate them to buckle-up for the hard road ahead to get the party back to its days of dominance.

The yatra was received differently by different parties vying against the BJP. While the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) distanced itself from the yatra calling it a ‘no consequence yatra’, other parties like the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Shiv Sena (Uddhav), the J&K National Conference as well as the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) supported the yatra. Yogendra Yadav, founder of Swaraj India, also supported and participated in the yatra.

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) initially distanced itself from the yatra, but party supremo Sharad Pawar called the yatra ‘immensely useful’ for the Congress and Rahul Gandhi. NCP leaders like Supriya Sule and Jayant Patil also participated in the Maharashtra leg of the yatra. The Communist Party of India Marxist (CPI-M) initially criticised the 18-day Kerala leg of the yatra, but party leader Sitaram Yechury later said, "Every party has the legitimate right to interact with the populace. Going to people is good."

The yatra also saw cameos from renowned and respected Indians who voiced their support for this initiative and marched alongside the former Congress President. Former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Raghuram Rajan, Bollywood actress and activist Swara Bhasker, filmmaker Amol Palekar, activist Harsh Mander, author and historian Irfan Habib and the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, Tushar Gandhi, were among the eminent personalities who participated in the yatra.

There have been multiple reports and articles that this yatra signifies a tectonic shift in the politics of the country. These articles suggest that the padayatra has helped the Congress transform its image in the minds of the country’s citizens and will ensure that the Congress can even form the government in 2024. All these claims, though extremely far-fetched, indicate that the impact of the Bharat Jodo Yatra has been positive on the ground. However it seems highly impossible that this positive thought will immediately translate into electoral success.

One of the successes of the yatra is the change in the outlook of the public towards Rahul Gandhi, who according to most experts still continues to be in pole position to be the PM face for the Congress. Gone are the days of the Pappu image, and the plethora of memes which were amplified greatly though social media. The last few years seem to have helped him mature into a politician asking the right questions and speaking through the right lenses. The yatra provided the platform to showcase the new Rahul Gandhi, helping him cement himself as the face of the Congress party in the country.

The Congress, as well, has got a much needed facelift through the yatra. The positive response to the yatra will be a leverage they can use while discussing possible alliances with other like-minded parties before the elections. The downfall of the Congress could have resulted in the regional parties forming a third front, leaving out the Congress as a whole, to take-on the BJP. The positive public reaction to the yatra has ensured such developments will be arrested and that the Congress will be the main player in the alliance against the ruling party.

The press conferences conducted during the yatra was another positive take away from the exercise. Though mainstream media entities were found discussing Rahul Gandhi’s white T-shirt and his thermal wear, he used the platform to ask questions on important issues like inflation, unemployment, communal disharmony and authoritarian politics. The Congress’ response to many government decisions have been very timid in the past and the opposing opinion was very issue-based. The yatra has helped portray an opposing force to the majoritarian Hindutva ideology which has managed to seep into most states in the country and is now seen as the primary ideology in the country.

There have been many instances of yatras in the past changing the entire political scenario of the region. The ‘Chaitanya Yatra’ undertaken by NT Rama Rao in Andhra Pradesh in 1982 propelled him as the leader of the masses and into the chief ministership. A more recent example for a revolutionary yatra was the ‘Praja Sankalpa Yatra’ conducted by YS Jagan Mohan Reddy in 2017, akin to the one his father and Congress leader YS Rajasekhara Reddy did in 2003. The hope for Congress supporters around the country will be that the Bharat Jodo Yatra will have a similar impact, propelling their party back into power.