By Vishal Gulati
Chandigarh, Feb 11 (IANS) Two legs of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra have enthused the party’s cadres in the BJP-Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) ruled Haryana. In the past it was facing ‘internal squabbles’ and now hopes for two poll victories in 2024.
With the state’s prominent political face and two-time Chief Minister Bhupinder Hooda claiming that the yatra got overwhelming support from the public, including farmers, labourers, traders, women and ex-servicemen, political observers say it brought senior leaders like Hooda and his arch-rivals Kumari Selja and Randeep Singh Surjewala on one platform, signalling they will contest the assembly elections slated for October 2024 in unison.
“Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra will benefit the entire nation,” Hooda told IANS on the phone on Thursday when asked, Can the Bharat Jodo Yatra revive the Congress fortunes in Haryana?
On the state-specific issues, Hooda, a prominent Jat face, said, “Once Haryana was number one due to high economic parameters, including the per capita income and per capita investment. Now it is number one in crime with a huge rate of unemployment.”
According to Hooda, the Bharat Jodo Yatra has raised three big issues — economic inequality, social polarisation, and authoritarian politics — and they have captured the common man’s imagination.
Besides Olympian boxer Vijender Singh, Gandhi during the Yatra’s Haryana leg met scores of farm union leaders, including Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait, the front leaders during the year-long protest against the now-rolled back three farm laws, and listened to their concerns and demands, including a minimum support price for crops.
Donning the ‘battle gear’ ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha as well as Vidhan Sabha polls, Hooda and state unit president Udai Bhan started a two-month-long “Haath-se-Haath jodo abhiyan”, a mass-connect programme, covering all the 90 assembly constituencies.
Seeing the response of the common man to the Bharat Jodo Yatra, Meham Independent legislator Balraj Kundu, who had withdrawn support to the government in February 2020 and launched a tirade against Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, has started an ambitious ‘Jan Jagriti Yatra’.
Also, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leader and former Leader of Opposition Abhay Singh Chautala will start a statewide foot march on February 20 from Nuh which will conclude on September 25, the birth anniversary of INLD ideologue and former deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal.
“People across the state have shared their concerns as they walked together with Rahul Gandhi and the party is confident that it will address them when it comes to power in 2024,” a confident Hooda told IANS.
Picking holes in the state government schemes, Hooda said during the yatra, people also raised the issue of the Parivar Pehchan Patra (PPP).
“People have named it Permanent Pareshani Patra because it is being used by the government to cut the ration cards of 10 lakh families. The income of the family has been shown to have increased by eight to 10 times. Even the ration cards of the children of the age group of four to five years were cut by showing an income of Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000.”
Saying that there is no factionalism in the party, Hooda said he would get a free hand to lead the party in the 2024 elections (Lok Sabha and assembly) as he got on previous occasions.
“Rahul’s simple but powerful message of ‘Nafrat ke bazaar mein, mai mohabbat ki dukan kholne nikla hoon’ has won over hearts,” remarked Ram Lal Yadav, a shopkeeper in Ambala, where the Haryana second leg of the Yatra ended after covering seven districts — Nuh, Gurugram, Faridabad, Panipat, Karnal, Kurukshetra and Ambala.
All India Congress Committee communication in-charge Jairam Ramesh, who participated in the foot march, said in Haryana the yatra had to endure cold weather conditions and bad roads.
“There are more potholes than roads in the state. I also got injured during the yatra due to uneven roads and I must say that roads in Haryana and Madhya Pradesh are the worst,” Jairam told the media.
Saying that the yatra was a complete success, Hooda said there was tremendous participation in both the phases, lakhs of people everywhere joined the yatra.
The Leader of Opposition said Gandhi interacted with all sections and people opened their hearts to him.
“The first phase started from Nuh, where people raised the problems of roads, electricity and water. During the journey from Nuh to Ambala, the poor condition of roads showed us the quality of governance.
“Except the National Highway, all other roads have only potholes. The government is unable to handle even the schools, colleges, ITIs and hospitals built by the Congress government,” he said.
He said an employees’ delegation met Gandhi and raised the issue of revival of the Old Pension Scheme.
Hooda assured the employees that they would be given the benefit of old pension like in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Himachal, when a Congress government is formed in Haryana.
During the yatra in Karnal, Gandhi met a delegation of Other Backward Classes (OBC) communities and de-notified tribes and listened to their problems.
“In Karnal, he met Haryana’s Bhim awardee, Arjuna awardee, Dronacharya awardee players. Boys and girls talked to Rahul Gandhi about the closure of government schools and the shortage of teachers in schools. The youth delegation put all the issues, including rising unemployment and corruption in recruitment before Rahul Gandhi. The youth and ex-servicemen voiced their views against the Agniveer scheme,” he said.
Yashvir Kadiyan, a farmer on the outskirts of Karnal city, told IANS that the crowds, mainly in the rural belts, turned up out of curiosity at the Bharat Jodo Yatra.
“Rahul met farmers and the families of farmers, who died during the agitation against the three farm laws. The farmers discussed the issue of guaranteed minimum support price (MSP) for all crops and asked him to include the MSP issue in the Congress manifesto for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. If he does, it will definitely be a game changer,” he added.
Congress watchers feel the Bharat Jodo Yatra has answered the questions of the people of Haryana and also laid the roadmap well ahead of the 2024 electoral battles.
(Vishal Gulati can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)
–IANS
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