Congress embarks on Bharat ‘Jodo’ Yatra, but bafflingly, leaves out Bengal
Rajiv Gandhi launched Congress’s countrywide Bharat Jodo Yatra (Unite India March) from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu on September 7. He is leading the all-India walkathon of 120 people, including 28 women. Some senior leaders are also part of the march.
However, significantly, the 3,750 km march (through 12 states in 150 days), meant to unite the opposition, would not cover an important non-BJP state like Bengal. Not just that, the ads for BJY feature 28 languages but leave out Bengali, India’s second-most spoken language.
Wanting to unite India but leaving out Bengal or anything to do with Bengal? This is really baffling.
Of course, there’s another way to see this march, and it is to do with the very survival of the credibility of Congress, as many political observers are saying. Since the rise of the BJP in 2014, Congress has gradually become a shadow of itself. Its electoral results are proof of that. In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, BJP won 78.4 million votes and the Congress won 119 million. But in 2019, while BJP almost tripled its vote count to 229 million, Congress’ vote count remained almost static, at 119.4 million, indicating a stark failure to attract new or floating voters.
