Yatra politics over the years: From Advani’s ‘Rath Yatra’ to Congress’s ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’

Earlier too, the Congress had taken out yatras to “revamp the party structure” and rally public support on various issues. After the rout in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Rahul had walked 15 kms at a Kisan Yatra in Maharashtra’s Amravati district to highlight farmers’ concerns.

Congress sources had then told The Indian Express that the party was “replicating the strategy adopted by former prime ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi after the party’s poll debacles in 1977 and 1989, respectively”. That seemed to have not worked though.

Other parties too have long relied on yatras as shows of strength or to raise issues, tapping into the appeal attached to such processions in the country.

2022

From April 6 to June 1, the Congress commemorated 75 years of India’s Independence with a 1,000-km “Azadi Gaurav Yatra” from the Gandhi Ashram in Gujarat. Another march, called the Gandhi Sandesh Yatra, was taken out from Champaran in Bihar to Beliaghata in Kolkata from April 17 to May 27.

Ahead of the Gujarat Assembly polls, slated for December this year, the state is witnessing several such yatras. At a recent event of the ruling BJP, its state chief C R Paatil said he had travelled a staggering 1.32 lakh kms in the last two years, participating in 841 functions across the state. “It takes around 40,000 kms to complete one orbit of the globe. Through the tour, I covered 33 districts and 7 metropolitan cities,” he said.

On July 5, the Gujarat government launched the “Vande Gujarat Vikas Yatra” to showcase development projects undertaken during the period when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the chief minister of the state. This Yatra will have 82 “Vande Gujarat Vikas Raths”, equipped with LED screens, and will involve the declarations about more than 25,000 public projects.

In an interview with The Indian Express, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s Gujarat leader Isudhan Gadhvi said the AAP has held 10,000 village meetings. He also spoke of the party’s “Jansamvedna Yatra” last year covering “every district and village” in the state.

In the run-up to the February-March Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress had announced a “Pratigya Yatra”, led by party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, covering 12,000 kms across the state’s 403 constituencies.

Similarly, in preparation for the polls, the Samajwadi Party (SP) held a cycle rally “covering all the districts of the state” in 2021.

The BJP had then also launched a five-day “Jan Ashirwad Yatra”, as part of which 39 Union ministers were sent to cover 22 states. On the BJP’s yatra, party MP Sudhanshu Trivedi had said that the party leaders covered 24,000 kms, adding, “This is a living example of the people’s faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the hard work of BJP workers.”

2019

In the run-up to the April 2019 Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections, the YSRCP chief, Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, undertook a massive “Praja Sankalpa Yatra” covering 3,648 km by foot across the state in 241 days, which began in 2017. Party leaders claimed he interacted with more than 2 crore people, and walked 15-30 km daily.

YSRCP national general secretary V Vijay Sai Reddy had claimed it was “the longest padayatra by any politician in India”. The YSRCP had then gone on to sweep the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls in the state.

Jagan had taken a leaf out of the book of his father and Congress leader, Y S Rajasekhar Reddy, who had undertaken a similar 1,400-km padyatra in April 2003. He had also led the Congress to a resounding victory in the 2004 elections, defeating the incumbent Chandrababu Naidu-led Telugu Desam Party (TDP).

2011

The BJP held a 14-day “Ekta Yatra” from Kolkata to Kashmir’s Lal Chowk to unfurl the national flag in the Valley. During the yatra, references were made to the BJP’s precursor Bharatiya Jan Sangh’s founder Shyama Prasad Mukherjee’s decision not to seek “permit” for entering Jammu and Kashmir. Mukherjee had been vocal throughout his life against Kashmir’s special status, mobilising support for the same. The march was headed by Anurag Thakur, the then president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, and was attended by senior party leaders such as L K Advani, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Murli Manohar Joshi and Rajnath Singh.

The march was meant to replicate an “Ekta Yatra”, which was taken out by the BJP in December 1991 from Kanyakumari to Kahmir. The party leaders had then unfurled the national flag in the Valley amid heavy security. Modi was a key participant in that rally.

1990

The BJP’s “Ekta Yatra” itself was a follow-up of party stalwart Advani’s “Rath Yatra”, which was taken out to demand a Ram Temple in Ayodhya. It started off from Somnath on September 25, 1990 and was to cover 10,000 kms to reach Ayodhya on October 30, to join the BJP workers there. It ended with Adavni’s arrest in Bihar on October 19.