The Congress party which is commonly referred to as the grand old party in the Indian Politics has been on a trailing note since 2014 Lok Sabha Elections after they were ousted from power by the BJP under the leadership of Narendra Modi. Elections have come and gone, but the results were not in favour of the grand old party in spite of winning few States in the assembly elections in between 2014-2024 elections because of rising anti-incumbency, rampant corruption, organizational weakness and ongoing defections within the party.
With the 2024 elections being an opportunity for Congress to regain its ground, the AICC has undertaken numerous changes to strengthen the party at large and retain its lost vote bank. One major step towards bringing back the lost glories of the Party were to embark on 2 yatras from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and from Manipur to Maharashtra in the last 2 years. With Rahul Gandhi being at the forefront, the yatras aimed at enlightening the masses with issues like unemployment, inflation, poverty, caste census, women safety, communal disharmony so that they can collectively put up a spirited fight against the ‘fascist’ and dictatorial policies of the Modi Govt to get Nyay or Justice.
The yatras have indeed succeeded in grabbing the media attention and in improving the likes of Rahul Gandhi as a mass leader who can raise the voice of the marginalized communities but the outcomes were short lived for the former Congress President in particular and the Congress in general. After the completion of the Bharat Jodi Yatra & the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, the Congress party lost their deposits from Rajasthan & Chhattisgarh in the assembly elections which came as a shocker in spite of attaining success in these 2 states during the days when the yatra passed. Political analysts claimed that the frequency of political visits by heavy weight leaders from BJP like Amit Shah & Narendra Modi surpassed the Congress during the campaigning period along with corruption issues and anti-incumbency factors that dominated Ashok Gehlot & Bhupesh Bhagel led govts in their respective states.
Besides, the guarantee of BJP towards ending corruption, inaugurating the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya and attacking the Congress for failing to understand the Hindu sentiments became a turning point during the assembly elections, as majority of the Hindu voters had a deep and emotional connection with Ram Mandir which resulted to a massive rise in the vote share of BJP from 33% to 46.27% in Chhattisgarh, from 41.02% 48.62% in Madhya Pradesh and from 38.08% to 41.69% in Rajasthan
The Bharat Jodo yatras had a decisive objective to unite the Country with people coming from all walks of life and resisting the oppressive forces of the land but recent observations have suggested that the Popularity of Modi cannot be compared with any yatra because of his dynamic leadership and the promise that he intends to fulfil (Article 370, Swachh Bharat, Ram Mandir). Whereas the charismatic approach of Rahul Gandhi needs more improvement as his tendency to avoid having political meetings in states (Gujarat, WB, Orissa, NE States, Andhra Pradesh etc) where the existence of congress is limited needs to be stopped since his interventions are required to add a glitter of hope to the Congress party workers and the voters. So, The final mandate as to whether Modi wave or Bharat Jodo yatra shall enjoy the sweet flavour of success can be revealed on the day of counting on 4th June.
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