After 77 days since its launch at Kanniyakumari in Tamil Nadu, the Congress’ Bharat Jodo Yatra entered Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday.
The yatra’s entry into the first Hindi heartland State will not only be a test of its popularity but will also be closely watched for its overall impact in next year’s Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh and neighbouring Chhattisgarh.
After a two-day break following the completion of its Maharashtra leg, the Bharat Jodo Yatra entered Madhya Pradesh via Boderli village of Burhanpur.
Later in the evening, senior Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also reached the State to join her brother and former Congress president Rahul Gandhi for the yatra over the next four days. For the most part in this period, the yatra will be in the Nimar region districts such as Burhanpur, Khandwa and Khargone, which hold special political significance for the Gandhi family, with former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi as well as former Congress president Sonia Gandhi having visited the region in the past.
While the Congress pulled out all the stops, including roping in Ms. Vadra to make the yatra a hit, the BJP launched its own yatra, the Janjatiya Gaurav Yatra, in the tribal belt of the State, from Khandwa that the siblings are scheduled to visit on Thursday. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan held a public meeting in the Pandhana region explaining the merits of the PESA Act that was implemented recently in the State.
Meanwhile, during his addresses in Burhanpur, Mr. Gandhi stuck to his usual script and talked about the need for the yatra.
‘Spreading fear’
“There are 2-3 goals behind the journey. Firstly, this is a march against the hatred, violence and fear that is being spread in India. See, what is the method of BJP – first of all spreading fear. Fear in whose heart – in the heart of the youth. How - By increasing unemployment. There is fear in the hearts of our producers and farmers, how - by not paying the right price, by not giving insurance money, by not waiving the loan. Fear in the heart of labourers, how - by not running the MGNREGA. So they first spread fear and then when it spreads well, then they turn it into violence,” said the Wayanad MP.
Asserting that the yatra had defied the prophecy of political opponents that given the size of the country, it could not be covered on foot, Mr. Gandhi said the yatra had come this far till now, adding that “we will hoist this tricolour of ours in Srinagar, no one can stop it.”
He added that the response to the yatra was improving gradually.
“When I passed through Kerala in my journey, I found Kerala had attracted the maximum crowd. But Maharashtra broke Kerala’s record. And on the first day itself, Madhya Pradesh has left Maharashtra behind in terms of public support,” Mr. Gandhi said in his evening address. Earlier, he had claimed that “lakhs of people, lakhs of farmers, lakhs of youths, unemployed youth will participate in this yatra and will walk across Madhya Pradesh”.
The yatra that will cover over 370 km in Madhya Pradesh will pass through seven districts, four Lok Sabha constituencies and 26 Assembly segments. During a press conference addressed by senior leaders Jairam Ramesh and Digivijaya Singh on Wednesday, the latter played down the electoral impact. However, apart from the fact that elections are scheduled next year and that this is the first State in the yatra’s route so far where there is a direct contest between the BJP and the Congress, this is a test for the faction-ridden State unit’s organisational machinery.
‘The last resort’
Mr. Gandhi said that while his party had won the [2018 Assembly] elections here, “20-25 corrupt MLAs were bought for crores of rupees and they formed the government”. He added that the yatra was the last resort as other avenues of raising their voices were closed and embracing people directly was the only way out.
While he met banana plantation and powerloom workers from the Burhanpur region and listened to their problems, Mr. Gandhi was particularly vocal about unemployment and farm issues that can have an electoral impact.
“Employment is provided by small and medium enterprises as well as the public sector, but they [the BJP-led Centre and Prime Minister Narendra Modi] have broken their backs… GST and demonetisation are not policies but weapons for eliminating small businessmen, workers, farmers,” he said, adding that privatisation of PSUs and Agniveer scheme had also dealt another blow to job prospects for youth.
“From Kanniyakumari to Madhya Pradesh, thousands of young people have told me ‘we were willing to lay down our lives for the country but why was this path taken away from us’. This is wrong,” he said.
In further signs that the Congress has certainly done its own electoral arithmetic, at the press conference earlier, Mr. Ramesh avoided mentioning Hindutva ideologue V.D. Savarkar and called it a closed chapter. On Mr. Gandhi’s statement that had caused a flutter in Maharashtra, Mr. Singh said he had merely quoted a letter written by Savarkar and had not made any statement
