How Bharat Jodo Yatra is building Brand Rahul but taking a heavy toll on Congress

The real take home of Rahul Gandhi led mammoth Bharat Jodi Yatra, so far, has been a marginal increase in his personal popularity but would it enhance the Congress’ electoral prospects?

As Rahul’s determined foot-march enters the Hindi heartland and a decisive phase, the substantive aspects of the former AICC president’s yatra needs to be taken in account. A big question relates to the Congress vote share. In 2014, the Congress polled 19.3 per cent. It went up marginally to 19.5 in 2019 but the BJP’s vote share during the same period marked a whopping increase from 31 to 38 per cent. In this context, can the Congress increase its vote share by at least five percent in 2024? Not even the most optimistic and enthusiastic Congress person is confident about it.

It seems Team Rahul is trying to bridge a crucial difference that exists between the Congress vote share and the former Congress president’s own popular ratings. As per a recent survey conducted by C voters, Rahul stands at 31 per cent approval as compared to 60 per cent popular rating of prime minister Narendra Modi. Before the yatra, C Voters claimed Rahul stood at 29 per cent against Modi’s 59 percent. C Voter founder director Yashwant Deshmukh finds it bit glaring that Rahul often does not get approval ratings that match with the votes polled by the Congress in 2014 and 2019 general elections. Would Rahul’s approval ratings improve by the time Rahul’s Bharat Jodo Yatra concludes in Srinagar in February 2023?

On the political plane, the ongoing yatra is taking a heavy toll on the Congress organisation.  Nothing seems to be moving an inch due to Rahul’s preoccupation with the yatra. The political challenges that face Rajasthan are being constantly buried under the carpet. Similarly, all crucial appointments in the AICC secretariat are put on hold.

Newly elected Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, a seasoned Congress leader does not want to act as per his political whims and fancies even though the Gandhi trio – Sonia, Priyanka and Rahul – seems to have given him a ‘free hand.’ Kharge, it seems, is deeply touched by the faith and confidence given by Gandhis but unsure of the machinations of those who draw strength from the same source, i.e. Gandhis. It may sound paradoxical but the Congress’ palace intrigues are real and have a legacy of their own.

Even in the winter session of parliament, the Congress is likely to have a muted presence due to Yatra. There is no word whether Mallikarjun Kharge would continue to be a leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha in spite of having indicated his intention to step down after becoming the Congress president. Here comes the proverbial ‘who bells the cat’ syndrome. For those unfamiliar with the Congress’ functioning in their conventional wisdom may think that Kharge should take a call himself or the weighty office of the 88th president empowers him to appoint his successor.

Alas, that’s not true. as per an amendment made in 1999, Sonia Gandhi is empowered to appoint leaders in both houses of parliament, i.e. Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. Theoretically speaking, if she continues to be CPP chairperson till 2024 and the Congress miraculously performs well in the Lok Sabha or succeeds in UPA-like experiment in stitching a coalition, Sonia would have the mandate and power to appoint the party’s prime ministerial nominee too, not Kharge.

On a lesser materialistic term, Kharge has perks of a union minister in his continuation as leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha. It is a different matter that aspirants Digvijaya Singh, Mukul Wasnik, P Chidambaram, Abhishek Manu Singhvi etc have a very different take and look at Sonia Gandhi with a prayer, plea and petition on the lips.  Sonia Gandhi, it seems oblivious of personal ambitions and enjoying fruits of her political retirement that she was craving for, at least since 2016 when she had turned 70.

There is another growing concern in the Congress. Much like Sonia Gandhi, Rahul has taken a shine to the members of the civil society such as Yogendra Yadav, Medha Patkar and others. There are over 150 civil society organisations drawn from 21 states which are part of Rahul’s Bharat Jodo Yatra.

It is worth remembering and recalling that during 2014-2004, UPA chairperson and Congress head, Sonia spent most of her time intervening in crises and doing firefighting. As head of the National Advisory Council (NAC), she tried catering to rural and urban aspirations by blending the experience of NGOs with that of professionals at the NAC. But the limited success that NAC had, was negated by a telling commentary on the efficacy of traditional Congress leaders. The absence of Congress’s intellectual capability to influence government and bureaucracy weakened the party. The Congress, at present, is in such disarray that even a suggestion that it is a philosopher [party] guiding the king [politician] would become a subject of ridicule.

Decades ago, Bhogaraju Pattabhi Sitarammayya, who lost the Congress president’s contest narrowly to Subhas Chandra Bose in 1939, with a poet’s flair, had equated the Congress ideology closely with the Indian nation and establishing ‘philosopher and the politician’ equation.  He told AICC delegates at the Jaipur plenary in 1948:

“The Congress is the service station of life-giving the ideology of the nation. The life-sustaining doctrines are pumped through the arteries of the government of the nation, where they become somewhat sullied in implementation and are returned to the Congress for purification. The ideology constantly discussed by the populace and constantly renovated as public opinion, is once again canalised by the Congress through the government in a renovated form, that is how the Congressand the government act and react upon each other… The Congress is really the philosopher, while the government is the politician. The latter has power and the former has influence.”

Also, in the present-day Congress, the lofty relationship between the philosopher and the politician is nowhere in sight in the party ruled states. But that is another subject to dwell upon.

The reviewer is a Visiting Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation. A well-known political analyst, he has written several books, including ‘24 Akbar Road’ and ‘Sonia: A Biography’. Views expressed are personal.

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