Marching across India, Rahul Gandhi aims to repair Congress party’s image

An old Bollywood film tune playing on circle urged explorers to continue to stroll as resistance pioneer Rahul Gandhi and an escort walked through northern India's Panipat city on a freezing morning last week, followed by many individuals.

Gandhi started strolling the length of the country more than 100 days prior from India's southern tip, wanting to fix the battered picture of his Congress party and take on State leader Narendra Modi's prevailing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Halting to welcome spectators and holding public gatherings, Gandhi intends to adjust his walk in northernmost Kashmir by January end.

"Long live Rahul Gandhi," Congress allies yelled, as the scion of a line that has given India three state heads walked through Panipat on his Bharat Jodo Yatra, or Join India Walk.

The 52-year-old, a wellness buff with a thick salt-and-pepper facial hair, strolls around 25 km (15 miles) each day, setting up camp in a trailer van that moves with him.

Gandhi's tiresome walk that will cover around 3,500 km (2,200 miles) is a return to the padayatras or foot ventures through the country heartland by past pioneers, including freedom legend Mahatma Gandhi almost 100 years back. The two Gandhis are not related.

This cutting edge variant of the walk gives a huge number of individuals exposure with an appeared to be far off and detached previously. pioneer. Congress is trusting that the groups Gandhi is drawing in will ultimately convert into votes.

"Since he has raised a ruckus around town, individuals can see what his identity is," said Dharamvir Arya, a 55-year-old rancher who had come to see Gandhi in Panipat.

"On the off chance that he stays in a cottage, stowed away, how might individuals understand what he is like?"

Surveying organization CVoter, which has followed Gandhi's endorsement appraisals in nine states — four of which will hold neighborhood races this year 1 as a feature of cross country month to month overviews of 30,000 respondents, found the Congress chief's ubiquity has risen notably in many states through which he has walked.

In the southern territory of Karnataka, which holds decisions this mid year, the level of respondents happy with Gandhi has hopped from 39% in January 2022 to almost 58pc following the walk went through.

The once-predominant Congress controls under 10pc of the chosen seats in parliament's lower house and has been destroyed in two progressive general races by the BJP, most as of late in 2019 under Gandhi's authority.

Modi remains India's most well known lawmaker overwhelmingly and is generally expected to win a third triumph in 2024.

Over 60pc of respondents the nation over favor Modi as head of the state to 30.3pc picking Gandhi, as indicated by CVoter.

No prompt profits

Experts say Gandhi's public picture is improving however it may not be enough for the hailing Congress to change over that into constituent achievement right away.

"To put resources into Rahul Gandhi's own notoriety is really a genuinely sharp move," said Neelanjan Sircar, a senior individual at the Middle for Strategy Exploration think tank in New Delhi.

"Does it yield discretionary profits? That, I think, is far-fetched," Sircar expressed, highlighting the BJP's predominant authoritative capacities and considerable political decision apparatus.

Gandhi declined interview demands from Reuters.

Digvijay Singh, a senior Congress pioneer, conceded the party had surrendered space as a powerful resistance, a capability Gandhi's walk was currently satisfying. "It is significant, it is urgent," Singh told Reuters.

Long seen by pundits as a hesitant legislator without the hearty abilities to take on Modi, Gandhi's crosscountry walk has likewise given him a stage to view the BJP to be responsible on issues like mutual polarization brought by its solid Hindu patriot plan, joblessness and expansion.

"The point is to face the trepidation, scorn and viciousness that is being spread in the country," Gandhi told columnists before the end of last month.

"I think the walk has been very effective till now, and it has accomplished more than we expected." For the BJP, Gandhi's walk is one more endeavor by the left-inclining Congress to change his picture however it doesn't present quite a bit of a discretionary danger.

"Individuals don't require ordinary folks, individuals need visionary pioneers," said BJP representative Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore.

"Has he shown any vision? Has there been any visionary discourse? No." The party means to involve the walk as a springboard to reconnect with electors and revive its grassroots units, said Singh, the senior Congress pioneer.

"We might want to develop and arrive at each family," he said. "We need to develop on this thought of Bharat Jodo (Join India)."