Congress' Bharat Jodo yatra: Bahut der kardi huzur aate aate!

New Delhi: The Congress has decided to undertake a Kashmir to Kanyakumari nationwide yatra from October 2, the birthday of Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi, to re-establish the "connect" with the people and strengthen the party.

This was announced by Congress president Sonia Gandhi in her concluding remarks at the end of the three-day 'Chintan Shivir (brainstorming session)' at Udaipur in Rajasthan.

"The yatra is to strengthen the bonds of social harmony that are under stress, to preserve the foundational values of our Constitution that are under assault and to highlight the day-to-day concerns of crores of our people," she said.

Apart from Sonia Gandhi, her children Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will also take part in the proposed nationwide march.

The Congress has been planning such a yatra from 2014 onwards but could not give it a final shape till now.

Rahul Gandhi had undertaken a countrywide padyatra, though briefly, in April 2015, a year after the Congress suffered its worst-ever electoral defeat in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Since then, the grand old party has continuously suffered poll defeats in many states and has failed to stem the electoral slide.

He had kicked off the foot march as part of a strategy to reach out to different sections that once comprised the support base of the Congress but had gradually moved away from the party — in a bid to revive the party’s sagging fortunes.

Rahul Gandhi had launched this yatra from Vidarbha in Maharashtra and travelled to Telangana, Odisha and lastly West Bengal.

Then after the party's repeat decimation in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Rahul Gandhi once again proposed a countrywide tour but never finalised it.

Congress leaders on different occasions have stressed the need for Rahul Gandhi to take out the yatra.

Earlier this week, veteran Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala urged Rahul Gandhi to take out a foot march across the country as part of the strategy to revive the grand old party.

Even now, Congress leaders will have to wait for over four months to launch this Bharat Jodo yatra. Perhaps, the hot weather conditions might have influenced the decision to launch it in October.

Time is of the essence in politics and four months is a long time as every day matters especially when your opponents are 24X7 politicians who have turned their party (the BJP in this case) into an election-winning machine.

In November-December this year, the Congress will be in a direct fight with the BJP in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh and the yatra in the midst of poll preparations is a big ask.

But before that, Congress will have to settle its leadership issue as the organisational elections for the president's post are expected to be held by September-October.

It remains to be seen if Rahul Gandhi finally agreed to return as the Congress president or Sonia Gandhi continues to steer the party with assistance from a senior leader like Ashok Gehlot.