New Delhi, India – A whole lot of individuals on Monday defied the cruel Himalayan chilly as they gathered in Srinagar, the biggest metropolis in Indian-administered Kashmir, to affix opposition chief Rahul Gandhi on the final day of his practically 150-day cross-country “unity” march.
Launched on September 7, 2022 from the nation’s southernmost tip of Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu state, the Bharat Jodo Yatra or Unite India March traversed by means of 14 states overlaying greater than 70 districts.
It noticed a lot of individuals – from distinguished civil society members and activists to native leaders and celebrities – attempting to maintain up tempo with the 52-year-old scion of India’s most well-known political household all through his journey spanning a distance of practically 3,500km (2,175 miles).
Political observers described the march as a last-gasp try by Gandhi to revitalise the fortunes of his beleaguered Congress Get together forward of nationwide elections due subsequent 12 months.
However for his supporters, the march was an audacious try to bridge the nation’s political and spiritual divisions, which they blame on the insurance policies of the Hindu nationalist authorities of the Bharatiya Janata Get together (BJP), led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“This can be a march to unite the individuals of the nation in opposition to the bigotry and hatred,” stated 48-year-old Uzma Sakib, who flew greater than 2,000km (1,243 miles) from the southern state of Telangana to affix the march in her native state of Kashmir.
“He [Gandhi] has resurrected as an individual and a frontrunner who can really feel the ache and empathise with the aam aadmi [common man]. And that is the form of chief that our nation wants,” Sakib instructed Al Jazeera from the Kashmir valley.
“He’s our solely hope.”
Reviving hopes of a ‘comeback’
The Congress Get together has ruled India for a complete of practically 60 years since independence in 1947, however its affect has sharply waned since shedding nationwide elections to the BJP in 2014, adopted by a slew of defeats in state and native elections within the years that adopted.
It presently holds a transparent majority in solely three of India’s 31 states and union territories, with analysts pointing to the get together’s lack of a clear-cut ideological framework and its incapacity to let go of the Gandhi household’s affect for its poor election showings.
In line with the Nationwide Election Watch and the Affiliation for Democratic Reforms, a complete of 399 electoral candidates stop Congress to affix different events between 2014 and 2021. Throughout that interval, the get together misplaced 39 out of 49 state elections.
And whereas many distinguished Congress leaders have confronted public discontent through the years, it has been below the de facto management of Rahul Gandhi – usually portrayed as an incompetent and reluctant politician by a bit of the Indian media – that the get together’s electoral positive factors touched historic lows within the 2014 and 2019 normal elections, successful simply 44 and 52 seats, out of 543, respectively.
Now, some observers say the march is step one – albeit a really small one – in the appropriate course to drag Congress and its scion out of the political wilderness.
“It’s not a simple course of. It takes years for leaders to emerge as nationwide leaders,” stated Rasheed Kidwai, a veteran journalist and political analyst, who has been overlaying the Congress Get together for many years. “Regardless of that, what he [Rahul Gandhi] has managed to do by means of this yatra is unconventional.”
Nonetheless, Kidwai was fast to warning that the march is probably not sufficient.
“On the finish of the day, it’s the vote that issues – and that’s the place the yatra has insurmountable challenges,” he stated, noting that the BJP managed to extend its vote proportion from 31 p.c in 2014 to 38 p.c 5 years later.
“The job of a political get together is to win elections. That’s the barometer on which a celebration is assessed. How this yatra would show for the electoral positive factors of the get together must be seen,” he added.
Neither Congress leaders nor supporters, although, declare the march is particularly geared toward enhancing the get together’s election outcomes. As an alternative, Congress asserts the march seeks to deal with “rampant unemployment and inflation, the politics of hate and division and the over-centralisation of the political system” within the nation.
“It’s a battle in opposition to the angle of hatred which prevails in our nation and never a debate about who would win or lose,” Salman Khurshid, a senior Congress chief, instructed Al Jazeera.
Khurshid acknowledged the get together should step up efforts to unfold its message however expressed confidence that the march had led to a change in the way in which the general public considered each Congress and Gandhi. “My political intuition says that folks have began wanting as much as Rahul as somebody who has the power to attract the eye of individuals, not simply in pockets, however proper throughout the nation,” he stated.
Simply one other ‘rebranding’ effort
However for the BJP, the march was simply one other failed try at rebranding the picture of Gandhi.
“The aim of this yatra is to not unify the opposition, because it’s been claimed,” Gopal Krishna Agarwal, the nationwide spokesperson of the BJP, instructed Al Jazeera.
“The Congress Get together is barely attempting to relaunch Rahul Gandhi and this effort has been occurring for fairly a while now,” he stated.
A research this month discovered that solely 13 p.c of respondents thought-about the march as yet one more “re-branding” train for Gandhi, whereas 29 p.c firmly believed it was successful in uniting the lots.
Nonetheless, 37 p.c nonetheless believed the march wouldn’t translate into votes for Congress, in response to the CVoter survey, carried out by the nation’s media conglomerate India In the present day group.
Again in Srinagar, 32-year-old Ishita Sedha, a staunch Congress loyalist, was getting ready to return to her hometown in Uttarakhand on the fruits of the 150-day-long journey.
“For me, it has been a non secular journey,” Sedha instructed Al Jazeera, describing the march as “life-changing”.
“Now I can proudly say that I’ve finished one thing for my nation. And this entire march has actually been a studying floor for me, which I aspire to proceed on my particular person stage,” she stated.
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