Traversing 6,600 kilometers via 15 states over the past two months, the chief of India’s opposition Congress Party, Rahul Gandhi, beat out a message that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has didn’t ship financial and social justice for the nation’s plenty.

Gandhi’s “Unite India Justice March” that resulted in Mumbai on Saturday aimed to offer his social gathering a lift forward of basic elections that start on April 19. At dozens of roadshows, he mentioned authorities insurance policies have benefited enterprise tycoons, not the marginalized plenty. He promised his social gathering would handle points equivalent to joblessness, particularly amongst educated youth.

Pledging to enact a “Right to Apprentice Act” if voted to energy, Gandhi mentioned that “we will ensure that every person getting a diploma graduating from college will get a one-year job as an apprentice” and earn the equal of $1,200 a yr. He mentioned the plan will change the “destiny of the youth.” He additionally pledged to fill vacancies for 3 million authorities jobs.

But can such guarantees dent the recognition of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who in line with most up-to-date surveys will win a 3rd time period in workplace?

“[Gandhi] is seen as a symbol for all those dissatisfied with the Narendra Modi regime,” in line with political analyst Neerja Chowdhury. “But his message, which is about the alleged corruption of the Modi regime, growing unemployment, rising prices and the hardships that people are facing, is not having the kind of traction at the ground level that one would have thought might have happened.”

That poses a problem to the Congress Party’s hopes of weakening the BJP’s maintain on energy in parliamentary elections starting April 19. Congress, the biggest opposition social gathering in India, received simply 52 seats in 543-seat decrease home 5 years in the past. BJP and its allies received greater than 350.

“Beyond a shadow of doubt, Rahul Gandhi is raising the right issues,” mentioned political analyst Sandeep Shastri, mentioning that current knowledge exhibits that unemployment and inflation are key considerations within the nation. “But will the right issues being raised convert into votes is a big question mark, because that is more a question of the voter perception of who is capable of solving the problem.”

At public conferences in current weeks, Modi has pitched himself as a frontrunner who can ship outcomes and has improved the lives of India’s poor throughout his ten years in energy.

“We have opened bank accounts for the poor, helped them build concrete houses, and given them water, electricity connections and free vaccines,” Modi advised a gathering within the southern state of Telangana, the place his social gathering is attempting to make inroads. “There is only one guarantee of change, that is Modi’s guarantee.”

To counter the BJP, the Congress social gathering cast an alliance with about two dozen regional events final yr to place up a united entrance to unseat Modi’s Hindu nationalist social gathering.

But hopes of mounting an efficient problem to the BJP have dimmed because the opposition coalition known as INDIA, an acronym for Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, exhibits indicators of fraying.

The alliance had aimed to place up a typical candidate towards the BJP to stop splintering of votes in parliamentary constituencies which are sometimes contested by a number of candidates. As a outcome, events win elections even when they safe lower than 50% of the votes forged.

However talks on seat-sharing have made restricted headway in some states like West Bengal, the place a strong regional chief, Mamata Banerjee, determined that her social gathering will contest all seats.

“It is a lost opportunity. Some of its big leaders have left the INDIA alliance, some other big leaders are not joining with the Congress and other parties to form a broad platform which was the whole idea,” says Chowdhury.

Analysts attribute the fissures within the alliance to the crushing losses that the Congress Party suffered in state elections held in December. The social gathering misplaced energy in two states, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh and was unsuccessful in unseating the BJP in a 3rd.

“It weakened the Congress Party’s role as the pivot of the alliance and subsequent to that, I think even state-based parties which were part of the alliance started redefining their individual strategies because they were more concerned with challenging the BJP in their individual states,” says Shastri.

Opposition events additionally accuse the BJP authorities of weakening their ranks through the use of the nation’s major monetary investigation company to launch probes towards a few of their leaders — costs the federal government strongly denies.

The stakes within the upcoming polls are highest for Rahul Gandhi. While most regional events have been holding floor in states that they govern, the Congress Party has suffered two humiliating losses within the final two nationwide elections.

Analysts say the opposition faces an uphill process in countering Modi — a powerful, charismatic chief, who stays massively fashionable amid a rising tide of Hindu nationalism.

“Gandhi has revived his image and tried to offer an alternative narrative, but so far many don’t see him as an alternative to Modi,” mentioned Chowdhury.

The cross-country march by Gandhi was his second he trekked via 12 states over a yr in the past to attach with voters. It stays to be seen his efforts can resurrect the Congress Party that dominated India for seven many years, or whether or not it’s going to proceed to languish.