Rahul’s Manipur to Mumbai ‘nyay’ yatra begins today

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will be hitting the road again. This time from Manipur to Mumbai, as part of his ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’, which begins today. The first leg of ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ from Kanyakumari to Kashmir was quite a success as it had at least ended the perception of the Wayanad MP as a laidback politician.

He had walked 3,500 km during the Bharat Jodo Yatra in heat and snow, and in spite of a knee injury. While it’s doubtful how the Yatra helped the Congress politically, but at least it gave Rahul Gandhi a lot of traction.

The second Yatra is staring at a time when India is at the threshold of Lok Sabha elections, but Congress still faces challenging times.

It lost three big states, including Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, and is now largely seen as a southern party after gaining Telangana and Karnataka last year. The allies are restless and refuse to treat Congress as a big brother or the largest partner in the alliance.

The challenge for Rahul Gandhi is to ensure that this Yatra works, not just for him, but for his party. Senior party leader Jairam Ramesh, however, clarified that “This is not a political Yatra. It is to protect the Preamble of our Constitution. But this is clearly not the case, coming close to the Lok Sabha polls”.

The route of the Yatra this time itself has stoked a controversy. For Rahul Gandhi and Congress, Manipur epitomises what they want to take the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi head on this election. It keeps referring to Manipur crisis as a failure of the BJP and an example of its divisive politics. Hence, Imphal was chosen with this thought as the starting point. Moreover, the Congress hopes that the erosion of the Congress from the northeast, which is not Hindu but a Christian-dominated region would help them improve their chances.

The Yatra will pass through states, which are seeing skirmishes for the Congress — Assam with a belligerent Hemant Biswa Sarma and West Bengal where the Trinamool Congress is making no bones about the fact that it does not want to pander to Congress’ ambitions.

The Yatra will take place for 11 days over 23 districts in Uttar Pradesh, which is significant. While it will go through once considered Gandhi bastions of Amethi and Raebareli, it is missing Ayodhya on its route at a time when Ram Temple has emerged as the biggest event of 2024 so far. Will this colour the Yatra and its intent? And will flagging off from Imphal help Congress and see Rahul Gandhi as messiah?