Rahul Yatra: Telangana saw crowds, but will it mean numbers? Bypoll loss a pointer

LIVE: Bharat Jodo Yatra | Fathlapur to Gurudwara, Degloor | Kamareddy to Nanded | Telangana to Maharashtra https://t.co/Q7mmVCemUP

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) November 7, 2022

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The meeting was well-attended, but now, as the dust on the Bharat Jodo Yatra settles, the question inevitably being asked is as to what would it do to lift the Congress in both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. While the Yatra spent 11 days in Telangana, where it has been losing despite a UPA government fulfilling the statehood demand, it was for four days in Andhra, where it was wiped out after the bifurcation.

Rahul walked nearly 370 km in Telangana, traversing 19 Assembly segments and seven parliamentary constituencies, between October 23 and November 7, with a Diwali break in the middle and a quick dash to Delhi to attend the taking over of the new Congress president, Mallikarjun Kharge.

Rahul repeatedly remarked at various interactions about being “overwhelmed” by people from all walks of life joining him. However, to many watchers, that may have been the exact problem with the Yatra, which drew away crucial party leaders at the height of the Munugode campaign even as its numbers were mostly made up by social activists and NGO affiliates.

The Congress leader was met by landowning as well as tenant farmers, weavers, women, college and university students, civil society members, representatives of workers’ unions and dozens of NGOs, minority community leaders, social and civil activists, writers, educationists, domestic and municipal workers, and transgenders. “People are in distress due to the policies of the state government, as well as the Centre. There is an outpouring of grief,” Rahul said at one interaction.

Among the prominent visitors were Radhika Vemula, the mother of University of Hyderabad Dalit student Rohit Vemula who committed suicide; actors Pooja Bhatt and Poonam Kaur; former Navy chief and trenchant Modi government critic L Ramdas; and activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan.

Three days ago, Union minister Anurag Thakur, in the midst of the Himachal Pradesh poll campaign, seemed to remark on Rahul’s companions, saying the Congress leader was “walking with the tukde-tukde gang”.

Among the issues discussed were the right to dignity, livelihood, security and healthcare for the poor, social security of unorganised sector workers, repeal of anti-worker labour codes, and unjust evictions of slum dwellers. Rahul, who has said his Yatra was to unite India and talk about the marginalised, repeatedly raised the issue of land ownership for the poorest of the poor.

On the numbers coming for the Yatra, at least some of which in the initial stages in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh were organised by die-hard supporters of the late Congress titan Y S Rajashekara Reddy, Rahul said: “Some Congress leaders are also surprised at the response. They are very enthused and I think there is scope for the Congress to grow in the state again.”
But then came the Munugode result, which didn’t generate a whisper from the Yatris.