From LK Advani to Rahul Gandhi, A Look at Leaders and Their Political Odyssey

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra culminated at the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) headquarters in the Lal Chowk area in Kashmir on Monday with unfurling of the national flag after traversing 12 states and two Union Territories in 146 days after its launch on September 7 last year, clocking over 4,000 km.

Amid snowfall, the Wayanad MP addressed a rally in Srinagar to mark the culmination of the march today and said the aim of his Bharat Jodo Yatra was to save the liberal and secular ethos of the country. “I have not done this (Yatra) for myself or for the Congress but for the people of the country. Our aim is to stand against the ideology that wants to destroy the foundation of this country,” he said.

The yatra has ended but the questions remain whether Congress will yield electoral dividends going forward especially when nine states are going to polls this year ahead of Lok Sabha elections next year.

Several political leaders in the past including LK Advani, Narendra Modi, and Mamata Banerjee, undertook political yatras to connect with voters and establish themselves as leaders of the people. Most of them eventually went on to build a momentum and win elections for their respective parties.

Here’s a look at some political leaders who have embarked on such yatras, which later blessed their parties with electoral success:

N T RAMA RAO’S CHAITANYA RATHAM YATRA

NTR, the founder of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), is considered the pioneer of ‘Rath Yatra’ in Indian politics post-independence. Covering 40,000 km and touring Andhra Pradesh four times in nine months, the ‘Chaitanya Ratham Yatra’ catapulted NTR to power in 1983. Throughout the yatra, the actor-turned-politician ate at roadside hotels, slept in his rath and returned to Hyderabad only after the announcement of Assembly elections.

L K ADVANI’S RATH YATRA

Months ahead of the 1991 Lok Sabha elections, BJP’s L K Advani started his Rath Yatra from Gujarat’s Somnath Temple in September 1990 to Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh to further strengthen the Ramjanmabhoomi movement. However, then Bihar CM Lalu Prasad Yadav refused to allow it in the state. Though the yatra did not reach Ayodhya, it changed the BJP’s fortunes as the party improved its tally to 120 in 1991 polls from 85 seats in the 1989 Lok Sabha elections. In 1997, Advani also took part in Swarna Jayanti Rath Yatra, covering 15,000 km.

NARENDRA MODI’S GUJARAT GAURAV YATRA 2002

After resigning from his post and recommending dissolution of Gujarat Assembly nine months before its term was scheduled to end, Narendra Modi launched Gujarat Gaurav Yatra in September 2002 to appeal to the “pride of the people of Gujarat”. The yatra proved to be a great success with the BJP coming to power with an absolute majority in the 2002 Assembly elections and Modi sworn in for a second term as chief minister. The elections took place in December, months after communal riots in the state. The BJP kicked off a similar yatra in Gujarat ahead of the 2017 and 2022 Assembly elections and the party emerged victorious.

Y S Rajasekhara Reddy’s 1,500-km Long Padyatra

Y S Rajasekhara Reddy was leading the Congress in united Andhra Pradesh when he undertook a 1,500-km padyatra in 2003. During the yatra that lasted for two months, YSR highlighted people’s problems and the TDP regime’s ignorance towards farmers’ issues. YSR managed to build a connection with the masses, resulting in Congress sweeping power in Andhra Pradesh and ousting the TDP in the 2004 Assembly elections.

MAMATA BANERJEE’S PADYATRAS

Taking a leaf out of Mahatma Gandhi’s book, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee took out several massive padyatras across West Bengal in the run-up to the 2011 state Assembly elections to connect with the masses. It was one of the factors that helped the TMC to defeat the Left Front, which enjoyed 33 years of power in West Bengal. Over the years, she also earned the sobriquet ‘street-fighter’.

JAGAN REDDY’S PRAJA SANKALP YATRA (PADYATRA)

After a defeat in the 2014 Assembly elections, YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) supremo YS Jagan Mohan Reddy embarked on a 3,648 km foot march (Praja Sankalp Yatra) on November 6, 2017. During the yatra that covered almost all districts of Andhra Pradesh in 341 days, the YSRCP chief addressed over 100 public meetings in which he targeted the “failures” of Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party (TDP) regime. Reddy travelled around 15-30 kilometres every day. Months later, the YSRCP registered a landslide victory in the 2019 Assembly elections winning 151 out of 175 seats. Reddy’s party also swept 22 seats out of the state’s 25 in the Lok Sabha polls.

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