PANIPAT, India, Jan 9 (Reuters) – An outdated Bollywood movie track taking part in on loop exhorted travellers to maintain strolling as opposition chief Rahul Gandhi and an entourage marched by way of northern India’s Panipat metropolis on a frigid morning final week, trailed by tons of of individuals.

Gandhi started strolling the size of the nation over 100 days in the past from India’s southern tip, hoping to restore the battered picture of his Congress social gathering and tackle Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dominant Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Stopping to greet onlookers and holding public conferences, Gandhi plans to spherical off his march in northernmost Kashmir by January finish.

“Long live Rahul Gandhi,” Congress supporters shouted, because the scion of a dynasty that has given India three prime ministers marched by way of Panipat on his Bharat Jodo Yatra, or Unite India March. The 52-year-old, a health buff with a thick salt-and-pepper beard, walks about 25 km (15 miles) per day, stopping for the night time in a trailer van that strikes with him.

Gandhi’s gruelling march that can cowl about 3,500 km (2,200 miles) is a throwback to the padayatras or foot journeys by way of the agricultural heartland by previous leaders, together with independence hero Mahatma Gandhi almost a century in the past. The two Gandhis will not be associated.

This trendy model of the march provides tons of of 1000’s of individuals face time with a pacesetter who has appeared distant and aloof prior to now. Congress is hoping that the crowds Gandhi is attracting will ultimately translate into votes.

“Now that he has hit the streets, people can see who he is,” stated Dharamvir Arya, a 55-year-old farmer who had come to see Gandhi in Panipat. “If he remains in a bungalow, hidden, how will people know what he is like?”

Polling company CVoter, which has tracked Gandhi’s approval scores in 9 states – 4 of which can maintain native elections this yr – as a part of nationwide month-to-month surveys of 30,000 respondents, discovered the Congress chief’s reputation has risen markedly in most states by way of which he has marched.

In the southern state of Karnataka, which holds elections this summer season, the share of respondents happy with Gandhi has jumped from 39% in January 2022 to just about 58% instantly after the march handed by way of.

The once-dominant Congress controls lower than 10% of the elected seats in parliament’s decrease home and has been decimated in two successive common elections by the BJP, most not too long ago in 2019 beneath Gandhi’s management.

Modi stays India’s hottest politician by a considerable margin and is extensively anticipated to win a 3rd victory in 2024. Over 60% of respondents throughout the nation choose Modi as prime minister to 30.3% selecting Gandhi, in keeping with CVoter.

NO IMMEDIATE DIVIDENDS

Analysts say Gandhi’s public picture is enhancing but it surely is probably not sufficient for the flagging Congress to instantly convert that into electoral success.

“To invest in Rahul Gandhi’s personal popularity is actually a fairly astute move,” stated Neelanjan Sircar, a senior fellow on the Centre for Policy Research assume tank in New Delhi.

“Does it yield electoral dividends? That, I think, is unlikely,” Sircar stated, pointing to the BJP’s superior organisational talents and formidable election equipment.

Gandhi declined interview requests from Reuters.

Digvijay Singh, a senior Congress chief, admitted the social gathering had ceded area as an efficient opposition, a perform Gandhi’s march was now fulfilling.

“It is important, it is crucial,” Singh advised Reuters.

Long seen by critics as a reluctant politician with out the earthy expertise to tackle Modi, Gandhi’s cross-country march has additionally supplied him a platform to carry the BJP to account on points like communal polarisation introduced by its muscular Hindu nationalist agenda, unemployment and inflation.

“The aim is to stand up against the fear, hatred and violence that is being spread in the country,” Gandhi advised reporters late final month. “I think the march has been quite successful till now, and it has achieved more than we expected.”

For the BJP, Gandhi’s march is one more try by the left-leaning Congress to remake his picture but it surely doesn’t pose a lot of an electoral risk.

“People don’t need regular guys, people need visionary leaders,” stated BJP spokesman Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore. “Has he demonstrated any vision? Has there been any visionary speech? No.”

The social gathering intends to make use of the march as a springboard to reconnect with voters and revitalise its grassroots items, stated Singh, the senior Congress chief.

“We would like to build up and reach every household,” he stated. “We have to build up on this idea of Bharat Jodo (Unite India).”

Reporting by Krishn Kaushik and Devjyot Ghoshal; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan

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