Mumbai, India – Loud chants and songs on justice echoed round Shivaji Park in India’s monetary capital, Mumbai, as 1000’s of individuals gathered on the iconic venue that had performed frequent host to rallies by freedom fighters when the nation fought for independence from the British a long time in the past.

This time, the slogans referred to as for a unique “freedom” – from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party authorities.

On stage, Bollywood singers Vishal and Rekha Bhardwaj sang traditional songs from in style movies, new and previous. The park was decked in flags and life-sized cardboard cutouts of politicians from the opposition Indian National Congress (INC) occasion. Police officers have been in all places, however the environment was festive – virtually resembling that of a rock live performance. The man on the centre of the occasion: Rahul Gandhi, scion of the Nehru-Gandhi household that dominated India for many of its first 50 years after independence.

On Sunday night, Gandhi and a bevy of leaders from different opposition events launched the election marketing campaign of their Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) from Shivaji Park, a day after the Election Commission of India introduced dates for the world’s largest vote. Nearly a billion Indians will elect their subsequent authorities in a seven-phase election that begins on April 19 and ends with the declaration of outcomes on June 4.

The INDIA alliance hopes to problem Modi’s BJP, which is aiming to win a 3rd straight time period in workplace, driving on the again of the prime minister’s private reputation, even because the Congress and different critics have accused it of dividing the nation on non secular traces and favouring choose industrialists.

At the guts of the opposition alliance’s efforts are lengthy marches undertaken by Gandhi throughout the size and breadth of the nation, to galvanise assist towards Modi. His Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra (Uniting India for Justice March) had culminated in Mumbai on Saturday.

The marches and Gandhi’s message of unity and justice resonated with supporters at Shivaji Park on Sunday.

Ganggu Bai, a 40-year-old prepare dinner who lives in Mumbai’s Dharavi – one of many world’s largest slum clusters made well-known globally by the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire – was amongst these on the Sunday rally.

“I am here to support the future of our country. and women’s rights,” she mentioned. “This event gives me hope and feels like it is actually for the people of India,” she added.

But for Gandhi, the Congress and the INDIA alliance to show that sentiment right into a nationwide wave towards the ruling authorities, they’ll want the votes of greater than their core supporters: In the final nationwide elections in 2019, the Congress received simply 52 seats within the Lok Sabha or decrease home of parliament, whereas the BJP received an amazing majority with 303 seats.

Political message

Addressing the rally, Gandhi insisted that the INDIA alliance’s struggle was not towards a political occasion [referring to the BJP] or the prime minister – however for a imaginative and prescient of India.

“There is a word ‘Shakti’ in Hinduism. We are fighting against a Shakti. The question is, what is that Shakti. The soul of the king is in the EVM (Electronic Voting Machine) and every institution of the country, including the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Income Tax department,” he mentioned, including that these establishments are the one cause the BJP is in energy.

The allegation: The “king” is Modi, EVMs might be hacked, and the federal government is utilizing regulation enforcement businesses to coerce opposition members and enterprise leaders into submission.

#WATCH | Mumbai, Maharashtra: At the conclusion ceremony of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi says, “There is a word ‘Shakti’ in Hinduism. We are fighting against a Shakti. The question is, what is that Shakti. The soul of the King is in the EVM. This… pic.twitter.com/lL9h9W0sRf

— ANI (@ANI) March 17, 2024

Several key politicians from the INDIA alliance, like Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Tamil Nadu state Chief Minister MK Stalin and former Maharashtra state Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, the previous chief minister of Maharashtra, additionally attended the rally.

“Ab ki baar, BJP tadipaar [This time, the BJP will be exiled],” Thackeray mentioned and added that those that tried to divide them [the INDIA alliance] could be defeated.

“Wherever Rahul goes, it looks like a festival,” Stalin instructed the cheering crowds.

Then, he alluded to the litmus check that awaits the alliance.

“The real victory of Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra stands in defeating BJP and capturing Delhi,” he mentioned.

Are Gandhi’s marches working?

Gandhi’s rally at Shivaji Park got here a day after he concluded his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra – a 6,600km (4,100-mile) march from India’s east to west, with detours in every state he handed via. His promise: “panch nyay” or “five pillars of justice” for ladies, youth, farmers, labourers and justice by way of fairness.

During the stroll, he introduced a one lakh rupee ($1,200) annual payout to each lady under the poverty line, and a 50 p.c reservation in in all new recruitments of central authorities jobs for poor households.

He started strolling on January 15 this 12 months within the conflict-torn northeast Indian state of Manipur, promising to carry peace to the area the place tensions between the state’s primarily Hindu Meitei majority and the predominantly Christian Kuki-Zo have led to violence killing lots of and displacing greater than 60,000 individuals. Traversing west from Manipur, Gandhi ended his stroll in Mumbai on March 16.

Previously, he additionally walked from South India all the way in which to Kashmir within the north, between September 2022 and January 2023, in a march referred to as Bharat Jodo Yatra (Unite India stroll), which centered on preventing towards poverty, unemployment and rising polarisation between Hindus and Muslims in India.

Those messages are what impressed Sudha Prakash to stroll with Gandhi in his first Bharat Jodo Yatra.

“I walked to show solidarity. I also walked to derive strength and hope from the thousands of others who walked, each with their own vision – and yet one that was also shared – of a better India for every single Indian,” Prakash, 60, who works as a instructor in elementary schooling in Mumbai, instructed Al Jazeera.

“I got an opportunity to meet so many people, people from different parts of the country, doing different things, belonging to different communities, representing so many Indias … it was wonderful. I came back exhilarated, emotionally charged and filled with hope,” she added.

Image downside

Aiyshwarya Mahadev, a spokesperson of the Indian National Congress hailed each the yatras as the most important workouts the Congress occasion has undertaken in its latest previous to connect with the plenty.

“We wanted to hear the voices on the ground and give them a voice. So during both the yatras we saw Rahul Gandhi listening to voices that hardly ever get heard, of people from communities that have been traditionally oppressed and marginalised,” she instructed Al Jazeera.

“This yatra is not about political pomp or any chest thumping, It was honestly about reaching the people on the ground, hearing their voices and becoming their voices. In this aspect it has been a massive success.”

But many Indians aren’t satisfied. The BJP has typically derisively termed snubbed Gandhi’s marches as designed to “break”, not “unite”, India.

Ujal Bhatia, a former Indian civil servant, mentioned he doesn’t consider that Gandhi’s marches will result in electoral beneficial properties for the Congress.

“The narrative of the BJP holds sway over much of the country – Hindutva, strong government plus welfarism which delivers palliatives to the poor,” he instructed Al Jazeera. Hindutva refers back to the Hindu majoritarian political ideology  of the BJP. The Modi authorities has additionally, over its decade in energy, initiated a collection of welfare schemes focusing on girls and different historically deprived sections of society, although critics query the federal government’s claims on the size of supply of those programmes.

“Rahul will get a lot of good vibes from his travels but Congress cadres are weak and the Gandhi family is reluctant to cede power to regional leaders,” Bhatia added.

Raj Malhotra, a 33-year previous lawyer from Bangalore, shared the same view.

“Enough people in the country are fed up with the divisive politics and crony capitalism but the opposition seems clueless in using this to its advantage. A huge part of this is because for more than a decade, the Congress party has neglected to pay attention to organisational weaknesses,” Malhotra instructed Al Jazeera and accused the occasion of nepotism and dynastic politics.

“While Rahul Gandhi might still be a viable candidate, he suffers from being made out to be a “pappu” by BJP’s propaganda manufacturing unit. The occasion actually must look inwards and type its inside mess out,” he added. The BJP and its social media supporters have lengthy described Gandhi as “Pappu”, a pejorative in Hindi-speaking northern India for somebody who’s intellectually uninteresting.

‘Democracy’ vs ‘command and control’

Sam Pitroda, telecom engineer and adviser to 2 former Congress prime ministers of India, Rajiv Gandhi and Manmohan Singh, conceded that the occasion appears way more chaotic than the BJP. But that, he mentioned, was in essence what democracy is about.

“The BJP is based on command and control, while the Congress party is not structured and based on cooperation and co-creation. So sometimes this looks like chaos. But that’s the core design of the party,” he instructed Al Jazeera. “People get confused that arguments and disagreements over occasion insurance policies means there may be lack of organisation and unity. But if you’d like democracy, it’s a must to let individuals argue and never be dictatorial.

“Rahul Gandhi is also a smart and capable leader. It is the BJP propaganda which invests in defaming him. How about before elections we have a national debate between Gandhi and Modi and then we can see who the real “pappu” is,” Pitroda mentioned.

Mahadev added that the marches have additionally performed a constructive position in uniting the Congress occasion’s members and employees.

“Through the yatras, Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Priyanka Gandhi [Rahul’s sister] and other leaders were all on the ground and the workers got the chance to meet and interact with them. That further galvanised the cadre and emboldened them to work with renewed vigour,” Mahadev mentioned.

“It is a reality that in today’s India, the voices of the opposition get stifled and at times, the future looks bleak, but through this sort of engagement where a worker is shown that the work that he is doing on ground is important, helps the party and is reminded of the huge role he plays in our success.”

What’s subsequent?

The INDIA alliance has additionally experienced fissures with key leaders exiting the bloc over political variations. But Mahadev mentioned that via the yatras, the opposition’s manifesto has been formed.

“When we did the first phase of the yatra, we walked through different states and interacted with different stakeholders across the board who spoke about their issues. This helped shape our narrative and gave us the basis for several of our manifesto,” she mentioned. “Several regional parties and our allies in the INDIA bloc also have representations and ideas which will be put forward as the promises we make during elections.”

Mahadev acknowledged that it was unclear how a lot the marches would immediately result in votes for the Congress or its companions. But that, she mentioned, was by no means the first intention behind the yatras, in any case.

“His footsteps may not always transform into votes in place but the idea of the yatras was to talk to people on the ground who came from various socioeconomic structures, vocations and even marginalised communities,” she mentioned. “These meetings were not political gatherings but his interactions to listen and to understand their reality, understand their issues and be a voice for them.”

For Gandhi, she mentioned, the marches have been about striving for “peace and unity”, and to “fight for India as a democracy”.