Among Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, college grad, tailor, curious onlookers

Pinky, 22, a recent college graduate, and her mother Uma Devi, 47, residents of Ishwar Nagar near New Friends Colony, had also gathered along the route to watch. Pinky said, “I think younger people like me tend to look up to Rahul Gandhi. It could be the idea that he might understand us better. Maybe we should give him a chance.”

Pinky and her mother Uma

Elizabeth, who lives near Ashram Chowk, was among those who waited to catch a glimpse of him. Earlier in the morning, a staffer at a dentist’s clinic in Defence Colony said she was inadvertently a part of the yatra since she needed to go from Badarpur to her workplace on Saturday morning. Unable to find any vehicles that would take her, she walked till Sukhdev Vihar, but did not mind the walk since she was hoping to see Rahul, she said.

Many who were not Congress workers also joined the yatra in Delhi. Among them was Abdullah and Javed, two 32-year-olds working for private companies in Delhi, who rode their bicycles through the yatra. Abdullah, a resident of Okhla, said they are not party members but decided to join the yatra considering what it stands for. “Rahul Gandhi is standing tall and he brings people of all religions together around him, which I don’t see with others. In democracy rankings, we keep falling. If this continues in India, I am really afraid…,” he said.

DU student Raman

Narendran, 50, who used to work in Dubai and has returned to Delhi, also said he was not associated with the party as such but walked in the yatra along with his wife from Ashram onwards for a sense of “self-satisfaction”. “We stand with what the yatra stands for, including no differences among people of different religions,” he said.

For a party that has fared poorly in both the recent MCD elections and the 2020 Assembly elections in Delhi, what does a grand show like this one mean?
Narendran said, “This is not going to change the world. But the yatra is more about what it stands for. The Aam Aadmi Party is strong in Delhi and the people have stood with it.”

Similarly, Elizabeth said, “People gathering in large numbers to watch or join the yatra doesn’t mean they will get votes. They seem to have lost what they had many years ago in this city.”

Nanak Chand, 55, a tailor near Ashram, watched the yatra from his shop. “People have gathered for it, so the yatra definitely means something. But the party’s losses in the city have been because there is no strong neta here from the party. That hasn’t changed,” he said.

The effort counts, said Neha Bansal, 36, an entrepreneur who watched the yatra near Ashram. “A walk like this looks like something nobody else can do. The way he (Rahul) is connecting with local people… he’s trying his best,” she said.

Kamil Hussain, 30, a construction worker from Bareilly who lives in Seelampur and was part of the yatra, said that the issues being raised by are important. “I came here at the cost of a day’s work of around Rs 500 to 600. But I think this is important. It’s people like us who are dealing with issues of rising expenses and yatra talks about these things,” he said.