Rahul Gandhi is set to embark on the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra from Manipur to Maharashtra, between January 14 to March 30, on Friday, just ahead of the Lok Sabha elections 2024. The yatra is touted as the second leg of his Bharat Jodo Yatra, which he undertook from late 2022 to January 2023.
This East-to-West yatra is expected to become the party’s main outreach programme ahead of the 2024 elections — it will conclude on March 20, days before the polls.
During the course of the first yatra, the Gandhi Scion covered 75 districts and 76 Lok Sabha constituencies across 12 states and two Union territories. He addressed 12 public meetings, more than 100 street-corner meetings and 13 press conferences. He also held more than 275 planned walking interactions and over 100 sitting interactions.
The yatra drew the spotlight throughout, with the Congress asserting time and again that the party was able to establish a people’s connect, reenergise its base and reap political dividends.
This time around, once again, the Congress would be hoping to reap electoral benefits. Let’s have a look at the election results in areas from where his Bharat Jodo Yatra traversed through and yielded positive results.
The grand old party bagged 40 seats, defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which emerged victorious in 25 seats in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections held in 2022. Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge credited Bharat Jodo Yatra for the party’s performance in the hill state.
The Bharat Jodo Yatra traversed through a few district in Himachal Pradesh.
The Assembly elections in the state were held on May 10, 2023. Rahul’s yatra entered the state on September 30, 2022, and travelled across the districts of Mysuru, Ballari and Raichur in 21 days. The yatra touched upon 20 Assembly segments.
In 2018, the BJP had won 9 of these 20 segments while the Congress had won 5. The JD(S) had won the remaining 6. In 2023, the Congress won 15 of the 20 seats, while the BJP and JD(S) were reduced to 2 and 3 seats, respectively. Compared to the 2018 polls, the Congress’s vote share in these 20 seats was up by 9.7 per cent.
The party trumped the BJP in the polls, winning 135 of the 228 Assembly seats.
The Congress unseated the Bharat Rashtra Samithi government in the state following the November 30 Assembly polls to form its first government in state, which was formed in 2014, led by Chief Minister Revanth Reddy.
The Bharat Jodo Yatra entered the state on October 23, 2022 at Makhtal district and traversed through districts like Narayanpet, and Mahbubnagar, ultimately reaching Hyderabad, in 12 days. It entered 29 Assembly segments during this time.
In 2018, the ruling BRS had won 22 of these constituencies while the remaining 7 were won by the AIMIM. The Congress did not have a single MLA representing these 29 seats. This time, the party managed to win 12 of these seats while the BRS emerged victorious in 10. The AIMIM retained the same seats as it had won in 2018.
The Congress’s vote share in the 29 seats was up by 6.75 per cent in 2023 as the party won the state, securing 64 of the 117 seats.
In the recently held assembly elections in five states, the party’s electoral fortunes did not seem to have shown any effect of the yatra in the two Hindi heartland states – Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
The Bharat Jodo Yatra entered Madhya Pradesh on November 23 last year and traversed through Ujjain and Indore districts in 16 days.
It covered 21 Assembly constituencies in all, of which the Congress had won 3 while the BJP had won 18 in 2018. In 2023, the BJP retained its hold, winning 17 of the 21 seats while the Congress emerged victorious in just 4. The party secured just 66 seats of the total 230 seats in the state, while the BJP won 166.
In the case of Rajasthan, the Bharat Jodo Yatra entered on December 4 last year and traversed through the districts of Jhalawar, Dausa, Sawai Madhopur and Alwar over 18 days, crossing 22 Assembly segments.
In 2018, the Congress had won 14 of these seats while the BJP had won 5, while 3 others were won by Independents. In the 2023 Assembly polls, the BJP trounced the Congress in 11 of these seats, as the Congress won 9 while the Independents got 2 seats.
The Congress’s combined vote share in these seats rose by just over 3 per cent, but the party lost the state to the BJP, which won 115 of the 199 seats that went to polls. The Congress was reduced to 69 seats in the state.
(With inputs from agencies)