Through his two Yatras, over the past two years, first from South to North and extra not too long ago from East to West, Rahul has gained a nationwide profile. Position or no place, he’s immediately recognised as THE chief of the Congress who’s taking choices for the get together, irrespective of who’s in-charge formally.

He has additionally develop into an emblem for all these dissatisfied with the Narendra Modi rule. And the primary selection of the minorities —wherever the Congress is able to get its act collectively.

Last Friday, on the Muslim-dominated powerloom metropolis of Bhiwandi in Thane district, a crowd of seven,000-10,000 of primarily Muslims waited for him to reach from Palghar for the final lap of his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, regardless that it was time to interrupt their Ramzan roza. Speaker after speaker from the group urged these current to work to make Rahul the prime minister. As they milled around the Anant Dighe Chowk, they nostalgically recalled the Congress rule and the “mohabbat (harmony)” of earlier years!

The curiosity about Rahul has additionally elevated within the final two years; individuals need to know extra about him. At Bhiwandi, I discovered a big group of Hindu girls who had include their kids. “We wanted to see for ourselves what he is like”, “We had heard about him”. Would they be voting for him? “We will vote for whoever works for us.”

Rahul has additionally emerged because the sharpest critic of Modi immediately. He didn’t mince his phrases two days in the past whereas criticising the PM, calling the now-scrapped electoral bonds scheme the most important “extortion” undertaken on the behest of Modi.

Over the final two years, Rahul has develop into extra assured in the best way he handles questions from the media; on electoral bonds, he remained determinedly centered on his topic, not letting the media deflect him by elevating points across the Congress’s culpability in different issues. (Still, he continues to berate the media at each alternative he will get!)

Congress staff additionally famous that between the 2 Yatras, Rahul didn’t disappear overseas as often as he used to earlier.

By design or default, in the best way the state of affairs has developed, and with out being formally projected as the choice to Modi both by his personal get together or by the Opposition alliance, it’s Rahul who’s seen because the counter to Modi within the battle that now lies forward for the Delhi gaddi.

Rahul Gandhi’s Yatra-1 was a novel, modern thought. People responded positively to a politician, and that too the “Prince-like” scion of the Nehru Gandhi household, strolling 4,000 km to come back to them and hearken to them. He stayed the course and the entire train helped him shed his non-serious, so-called “Pappu” picture.

Though Rahul continued with the fake pas he’s recognized for, equivalent to a detrimental reference to V D Savarkar in Maharashtra, a state the place he’s a revered determine, throughout his first Yatra. This time, there was a lot heartburn inside the Congress over his contemptuous reference to those that attended the Ayodhya Ram Temple consecration, saying it solely had “people like Ambani, Adani” or a “dancing” Aishwarya Rai.

The second Yatra, significantly its timing, was additionally mystifying. Elections have been across the nook, seat-sharing needed to be finetuned with coalition companions; new challenges confronted the INDIA bloc, with Mamata Banerjee pulling out, as did the Jayant Choudhary-led RLD. And a Yatra on wheels was like so many different such endeavours, with politicians enterprise excursions on a regular basis, interspersed with small group conferences.

Still, as throughout his first Yatra, Rahul drew massive crowds in some locations, equivalent to in Nashik earlier this week the place, as per a Congress chief, “Bhayankar response tha (There was huge response)”. The Communists have had a base within the area, and ally Shiv Sena additionally put its finest foot ahead.

But, on the finish of the day, the Yatras have performed little to rebuild a dying Congress organisation. There may have been follow-up camps throughout the nation, alongside the routes Rahul adopted, tapping into the passion and new energies generated by his Yatra to create a help base for his get together. Even when individuals speak of the nice response Rahul drew in some locations, they specific within the subsequent breath what worries most Congress karyakartas, “But we don’t know if this will convert into votes!”

An organisation is a obligatory prerequisite for garnering votes. And in the end, a political get together is all about energy and profitable elections – earlier than it could actually get on to “serving the people”, or “changing policy” or “protecting democracy”.

It was in direction of the top of his Yatra-2, significantly after he entered Maharashtra, a state which goes to determine fortunes within the coming elections, that Rahul struck a ballot pitch, and introduced ‘Nyay’ / ensures for farmers, youth and girls like agenda factors for his get together’s manifesto. He additionally shared the stage with NCP (SP) supremo Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Sanjay Raut in Nashik, giving it the flavour of the INDIA bloc preventing the polls collectively.

Rahul’s Yatra-2, many really feel, may have been extra of the above – concerning the INDIA alliance, and fewer about himself, signalling, as nothing else may have performed, the coalition preparing for the 2024 polls, transferring in step from state to state. But the allies weren’t consulted, and so they have been made a part of the journey solely on the final second, as in UP and later in Maharashtra. It was a possibility misplaced.

“India is at a point today, not unlike the situation it faced in 1947”, stated an entrepreneur in Pune, “to be or not to be inclusive.” Rahul raised the best points, the entrepreneur added, “par woh unki pakad mein nahin aa rahe hain (but he is not able to convey the same to connect with the people)”.

This was additionally true of points equivalent to “berozgari (unemployment)” – a actuality for therefore many. Selling cucumbers from a cart at a chowk in Thane, Vikas Kumar stated he had come all the best way to Mumbai from Poorvi Champaran searching for work. “I have to pay Rs 4,000 per month to the policeman, eke out a living and send money to my ailing mother back home,” says the 20-year-old OBC youth.

Rahul’s posters round him, Vikas says he has heard concerning the Yatra. But the concepts espoused by Rahul, together with caste census, language that implies the Congress chief sees himself within the function of Mandal Messiah-2 – his fixed chorus that “90% of India (OBCs, SCs, STs, minorities) does not figure among the top positions in the country’s bureaucracy, judiciary, or the media” – don’t resonate with Vikas.

But now the die has been solid. Rahul’s opponent isn’t any unusual foe – pitching as Modi is for 370 seats this time. There will now be no time for something however exhausting bargaining throughout the desk for seats, and the warmth and mud of an extended, gruelling marketing campaign unfold over seven phases.

It is as soon as once more over to the individuals of India.

(Neerja Chowdhury, Contributing Editor, The Indian Express, has lined the final 10 Lok Sabha elections. She is the creator of How Prime Ministers Decide)