A 3.500 km yatra would be covered as a community outreach program by Congress
- The yatra aims at regaining votes for the upcoming 2024 polls.
- Various political leaders have resorted to yatras in order to reach out to the masses.
Rahul Gandhi along with his party (Congress) is all prepared for one of the extravagant old community outreach programs. the 3,500 km ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’.
The 150-day yatra would begin on September 7. Congress has leaned on this Programme in recent decades.
The ambition behind this is to regain the lost ground ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections. Subsequently, the congress aims to drum up support for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Congress isn’t the only political party that has exploited the leverage of yatras to germinate their support.
Various political leaders have en-routed the path established by the Father of our Nation- Mahatma Gandhi’s successful 240-km ‘Dandi March’ which aimed at mass mobilisation.
LK Advani, Narendra Modi, and Mamata Banerjee undertook political yatras to connect with voters and established themselves as leaders of the people.
Yatra: a way to connect with masses
Here are some leaders who resorted to yatras and later enjoyed their political success during elections.
- N T Rama Rao’s Chaitanya Ratham Yatra
Founder of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), NT Rama Rao is considered to be the pioneer of Rath Yatra in Indian politics post-independence.
During this, a distance of 40,000 km was covered, and they toured Andhra Pradesh four times in nine months.
The Chaitanya Ratham Yatra offered a clear win for NTR in 1983. The actor-turned-politician ate at the roadside hotels and stayed in this rath throughout the yatra.
- L K Advani’s Rath Yatra
L K Advani initiated his Rath Yatra from Gujarat’s Somnath Temple to Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh to further strengthen the Ramjanmabhoomi movement in September 1990.
His party relied on this during the 1991 Lok Sabha elections.
However, the yatra didn’t reach Ayodhya as Lalu Prasad (then Chief Minister of Bihar) didn’t allow them to enter.
But they had foreseen the victory of the party as they bagged 120 in the 1991 polls as compared to 85 in the 1989 Lok Sabha elections.
Later in 1997, Advani participated in Swarna Jayanti Rath Yatra, covering 15,000 km.
- Narendra Modi’s Gujarat Gaurav Yatra 2002
Followed by the fervent criticism of his government over the 2002 Gujarat riots that was heeded by the resignation and dissolution of the assembly.
Narendra Modi resorted to the Gujarat Gaurav Yatra which appealed to the pride of the people of Gujarat.
The yatra resulted in a fortuitous victory and BJP won the polls with an absolute majority in 2002.
The BJP initiated a similar one in Gujarat ahead of the 2017 Assembly elections. This was a success and the party emerged victoriously.
- Mamata Banerjee’s Padyatra
Mamta Banerjee who’s the leader of Trinamool Congress Chief carried out several massive padyatras across the state of West Bengal for the run-up to the 2011 Assembly elections to connect with the public.
These factors helped Trinamool Congress (TMC) to defeat the Left Front. It however enjoyed 33 years of established power in West Bengal.
Over the years, Mamata Banerjee also earned the sobriquet ‘street fighter’.
- Y S Rajasekhara Reddy’s 1,500 Km long Padyatra when he was leading the congress in Andhra Pradesh.
This lasted two months during which YSR talked about people’s problems and the TDP regime’s ignorance towards farmers’ issues.
He however managed to build a connection with the audience which resulted in Congress sweeping power in Andhra Pradesh and ousting the TDP in the 2004 Assembly elections.
- Jagan Reddy’s Praja Sankalp Yatra (Padayatra)
After acknowledging defeat in the 2014 Assembly elections, YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) supremo YS Jagan Mohan Reddy ventured on a 3,648 km foot march (Praja Sankalp Yatra) on November 6, 2017.
This covered almost all districts of Andhra Pradesh in 341 days.
Over 100 public meetings were addressed by the YSRCP Chief in which he targeted the “failures” of Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party (TDP) regime
