While Congress has denied any political angle, the yatra is seen as an ambitious attempt by the Grand Old Party to revive its chances ahead of 2024.
The Congress’ ambitious 3,570-km-long ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’, which will be led by Rahul Gandhi, is set to start off on September 7 and will be covering as many as 12 states and two Union Territories over the next five months.
The arduous padyatra (foot march) is the longest such campaign in Raul Gandhi’s nearly two-decade political career and the biggest mass-outreach programme undertaken by his party in decades. The yatra is scheduled to be completed in 150 days.
While the Congress has denied any political angle, the yatra is seen as an ambitious attempt by the Grand Old Party to revive its chances for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Experts are also seeing this walkathon as a bid to reinvigorate Rahul Gandhi’s political graph amid regional satraps like Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal and Nitish Kumar expanding their parties’ footprints.
It also comes at a time when the Congress has announced its presidential election schedule amid a clear reluctance shown by the Gandhis to take up the top party post, which has led to speculations of several others from the party mulling to throw their hats in the ring.
Before launching the Bharat Jodo Yatra from Tamil Nadu’s Kanyakumari on 7 September, Rahul Gandhi will attend a prayer meeting at former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s memorial in Sriperumbudur. Rahul will also attend an event at the Mahatma Gandhi Mandapam where Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin will hand over the national flag to him, sources told PTI.
On 8 September, the former Congress president will kick-start the 3,500-km-plus yatra from Kanyakumari to Srinagar at 7 am, PTI reported.
The Congress leaders undertaking the padyatra are termed ‘Bharat yatris’, who will on average cover a distance of 20-25 km per day. The other classifications of the yatris include ‘atithi yatris’, ‘pradesh yatris’ and ‘volunteer yatris’.
The walkathon will start from Kanyakumari and will then advance towards Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Nilambur, Mysuru, Bellary, Raichur, Vikarabad, Nanded, Jalgaon, Indore, Kota, Dausa, Alwar, Bulandshahr, Delhi, Ambala, Pathankot, Jammu, and finally, conclude in Srinagar.
According to The Indian Express, the list of 117 Bharat Yatris accompanying Rahul include former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar, Congress media department head Pawan Khera, former Punjab minister Vijay Inder Singla, ex-Bihar MLA Amit Kumar Tunna, ex-Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy’s son Chandy Oommen, Youth Congress leaders Pratibha Raghuwanshi and Sitaram Lamba, among others.
Former Youth Congress president Keshav Chandra Yadav, Uttarakhand Mahila Congress president Jyoto Rautela, secretary of the communication department of the Uttarakhand Congress Vaibhav Walia will also undertake the padyatra.
Earlier on 23 August, the Wayanad MP interacted with a host of civil society activists at Delhi’s constitutional club, following which they announced support for Congress’ Bharat Jodo Yatra.
These include co-founder of Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) Aruna Roy, Swaraj Abhiyaan or Swaraj Party head Yogendra Yadav, writer and cultural activist Ganesh Devy, feminist writer and former Planning Commission member Syeda Hameed, and founder of the Safai Karmachari Andolan Bezwada Wilson.
The Congress has said that during the padyatra, Rahul will sleep in a shipping container cabin at night. During this foot march, Rahul Gandhi, the Congress leaders said, will "listen a lot and speak less".
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