After ‘apolitical’ yatra, Cong set for ‘political’ Haath Se Haath Jodo Abhiyan

With the Bharat Jodo Yatra set to conclude on January 30, the Congress is now preparing for what may, arguably, prove to be an even more daunting challenge. Starting January 26, the party wants its block, district, and state leaderships to directly reach out to 2.5 lakh gram panchayats, 6 lakh villages, and 10 lakh polling booths across the country within two months through its Haath Se Haath Jodo Abhiyan.

As The Federal reported last month, the objective of the party’s upcoming mass outreach initiative is to ensure that the goodwill Rahul Gandhi has drawn from different sections of society during Bharat Jodo Yatra is effectively harnessed by the Congress for its electoral revival in the run up to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

“Extension of Yatra but different in scope”

On Friday (January 13), Congress communications department chief Jairam Ramesh stressed that the Haath Se Haath Jodo Abhiyan, though an “extension of the Bharat Jodo Yatra,” would be different in its scope and ambition, as it would be a “purely political” campaign. The publicity material that the party is preparing for the Abhiyan will prominently feature the Congress election symbol, party flag, and images of its top leadership, unlike the Yatra, for which the party used the national flag and an “apolitical anthem.”

Ramesh also shared copies of a “letter from Rahul Gandhi” addressed to “my fellow Indians” that Congress members participating in the Abhiyan will distribute to “as many households as possible across all gram panchayats and villages.” The letter explains the reasons that led Rahul to embark on the Yatra, which he has described as the “most enriching journey of my life,” and states that the Yatra has “renewed my vigour to fight for each one of you.”

“There is a palpable economic crisis brewing — joblessness among the youth, unbearable price rise, severe farm distress, and a complete corporate capture of the country’s wealth… There is a deep sense of hopelessness across the country. Today, even our plurality is under threat… this vicious agenda has its limits and it cannot go on any longer,” the letter states.

The Congress is also finalising a “chargesheet” against the Narendra Modi-led central government, highlighting its failures on various fronts, a copy of which will also be distributed along with Rahul’s letter.

Response to critics of Yatra

The Haath Se Haath Jodo Abhiyan, Ramesh said, is an unambiguous response to Congress’s political rivals, critics and commentators who had incessantly mocked the Yatra and its purpose while questioning how a cross-country foot-march would help the crisis-ridden party tide over its organisational deficiencies or pit it as a viable alternative to the BJP.

With its target of covering every gram panchayat and village in the country within two months, the Abhiyan would naturally require a reinvigorated organisation at the grassroots. A senior party leader believes the Abhiyan is the “perfect progression from a social and somewhat quasi-political Yatra to an entirely political and election-driven mass outreach initiative that we were lacking for the past several years.”

Watch: Why ex BJP ideologue thinks India needs Bharat Jodo Yatra

Party sources said by putting the onus of the Abhiyan’s success on the state leadership and limiting the involvement of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in rallies in different state capitals towards the end of the outreach programme (Priyanka will also lead a day-long “women only” padyatra in different state capitals), the central leadership also wants to prevent any complacency at the grassroots while widening the ambit of worker participation.

“Real test of Congress abilities”

While its scope and objective may have given the Congress reason to cheer, particularly after the palpable success of the Yatra, many within the party say the Abhiyan would be the “real test of our political capabilities.” A Congress veteran from Orissa told The Federal, “there are several states, including my own, where the Congress today is a fringe outfit, and many of these states were also excluded from the route of the BJY… In these states, while we have several self-proclaimed leaders, we have no real workers left, so the questions are obvious — who will carry out these padyatras planned under the Haath Se Haath Jodo Abhiyan, who will raise the resources and how will we convince voters who have rejected us election after election that they must open their doors to us?”

A senior party leader, who was privy to the Abhiyan’s planning, said given the “severe funds crunch” the Congress has been facing over the years and its repeated electoral setbacks, concerns over resource mobilisation for such a “mammoth initiative” and about “convincing voters to hear us out” are “absolutely valid.” However, he said the party’s membership drive across “most, if not all, states” over the past year had shown “positive signs” and getting workers to carry out the door-to-door padyatra across blocks, villages, and towns will “not be difficult” because every state Congress chief has been given clear instructions to appoint district-wise in-charges from a pool of committed local leaders who will supervise the Abhiyan at the block and district levels.

Fraught with organisational and operational issues

Yet, there is no dearth of organisational and operational issues that party insiders allude to while asserting that unlike the Yatra, which had Rahul Gandhi as its mascot, the Haath Se Haath Jodo Abhiyan, which will largely be executed by state-level leaders and party workers, will be more challenging to pull off.

Also read: What next after Bharat Jodo Yatra? Cong draws up future strategies

“In its scale and canvas, the Yatra was certainly an unprecedented initiative that had its own share of complications but it was led by Rahul Gandhi, and so, leaders across the hierarchy willingly rallied behind him, and even common citizens were curious about it… That will not be the case with the Haath Se Haath Hodo Abhiyan because in several states, forget local leaders, even our state Congress chiefs don’t have a mass base. Besides, who will audit the efficacy of the Abhiyan? It will be the same lot of people handpicked by the state chief or state in-charge who may give a pre-determined feedback,” a former Congress chief of an eastern state told The Federal.

A party leader from Rajasthan, which is scheduled for assembly polls at the end of this year, said neither the BJY nor the proposed Abhiyan offers any real remedy for the organisational mess the party finds itself in across many states. “The Bharat Jodo Yatra was a massive success in Rajasthan; Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot marched together with Rahul, and we kept saying all is well in the party, but is it? Did the Yatra give any hint of whether Gehlot will continue as CM or whether Pilot will replace him? Now, Pilot has announced his own public outreach programme starting January 16. We don’t know if he has been told by Rahul to do it or whether he is planning to quit the party… How will the Haath Se Haath Jodo Abhiyan strengthen the party in Rajasthan when one of our most prominent leaders and CM aspirants is busy carrying out a parallel yatra,” the leader said.

Little beyond rhetoric

Ramesh, too, had no clear answer regarding the party’s Rajasthan conundrum. Asked if a resolution to the turf war between Gehlot and Pilot was likely anytime soon and how the party viewed the series of public meetings Pilot has announced across Nagaur, Hanumangarh, Jhunjhunu, Pali, and Jaipur, Ramesh once again reiterated that the matter “will be resolved soon” and that the warring leaders were “assets for the Congress and must jointly work for the party.”

Also read: Bharat Jodo Yatra is crowd-puller, but political heft eludes Congress

As many as nine states, including Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, and the Congress-ruled Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, are due for assembly polls this year. With the Yatra and the forthcoming Haath Se Haath Jodo Abhiyan, the Congress is hoping that its drought of electoral victories will end this year and put the party on a definite revival path ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

However, despite the accomplishments of the Yatra and the ambitious scale of the Haath Se Haath Jodo Abhiyan, the party clearly has no clear remedies yet for its deep-seated organisational morass, nor a well-defined alternative political vision — something Rahul recently said was a pre-requisite for defeating the BJP — beyond the rhetoric against unemployment, communal strife, and price rise.