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Journalism of Courage
With 4,084 km covered over 135 days, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has surpassed the distance covered by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy during his padyatra over more than one-and-a-half years, from 2017 to 2019.
The YSRCP leader had walked 3,648 km, and swept to power by an unprecedented majority in the state in the elections that followed. It was till now considered the longest distance covered on foot by a politician in the country.
Rahul started his Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu on September 7, and wrapped it up in Srinagar on Sunday, after covering 75 districts through 12 states.
Jagan Reddy had started his ‘Praja Sankalpa Yatra’ from his late father Dr Y S Rajashekara Reddy’s native village Idupalapaya in YSR Kadapa district on November 6, 2017, and concluded it at Ichchapuram in Srikakulam district near the Odisha border on January 9, 2019, with breaks in the middle.
Formerly in the Congress, Jagan had left the party on being denied leadership of the state unit following the death of his father – former chief minister Y S R Reddy, himself a veteran of a long yatra. In 2014, Jagan’s YSRCP had finished behind the TDP to emerge as the main Opposition party. The 2017 march was timed for the next election.
In his record-setting march, Jagan covered 13 districts (now divided into 26), 134 Assembly segments spread over 2,516 villages, and addressed 124 public meetings and 55 community meetings. YSRCP leaders claim Jagan met at least 2 crore people during this padyatra.
Before Jagan’s yatra, YSR held the record for a long march in Andhra – having walked 1,500 km in 60 days, starting April 2003, which in turn saw him into the CM’s chair in the 2004 elections.
Even TDP chief and now Leader of the Opposition N Chandrababu Naidu had embarked on a padyatra in 2012, covering nearly 2,000 km in then undivided Andhra Pradesh.
Just days ago, on January 27, his son and TDP general secretary Nara Lokesh Naidu set off on a 4,000-km padyatra, from Kuppam in Chittoor district. Lokesh’s ‘Yuva Galam (voice of youth)’ march aims to cover 125 Assembly constituencies in 400 days, ending at Ichchapuram in Srikakulam on the Odisha border – just like Jagan did four years ago.
Even the BJP has emulated the parties in the region as it seeks to make its mark in Telangana. State BJP chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar started his Praja Sangrama Yatra in August 2021, and has so far completed four phases covering over 44 Assembly constituencies and clocking over 1,200 km.
