There is excitement among local party leaders and supporters as the Bharat Jodo Yatra enters the Hindi heartland — first in Madhya Pradesh.
But local leaders’ excitement is making way for disappointment, as they feel that their hard work to drum up support goes unacknowledged.
All talk in one voice about the impact the yatra will have for Congress — from the cadre getting energised to Rahul’s effectively leaving behind the ‘Pappu’ image thrust on him by the BJP — but the common refrain is that they are left clueless on the way ahead.
Not just on what they have to do in future, they have complaints about how some of them were left with egg on their face, as Rahul, ostensibly due to security reasons, just walked past fast the locals whom they have gathered, ignoring the “dais” they have set up for them.
“We served tea to a lot of people on the day the yatra passed through our locality. We used 500 litres of milk which we collected from villagers. He could have waited for a few minutes for us so that all of us could see him. He left like a flash,” complains Jitendra Tomar, a third-generation Congress supporter in Baswa village.
But, what is the good thing about the yatra? Local leaders say Rahul’s reach out is resulting in a make-over of his image and helping the party. Many are impressed with his temple visits with Sanawad City Congress president Aftab Hilal saying, “he should go more to temples. We need to (nip in bud) BJP’s Hindutva campaign”, and Muzaffar Baig, a Congress functionary, agrees.
Local leaders who organise the crowd say they were in the dark about the schedule — there were unexpected changes in routes as the yatra did not go through places where local leaders had prepared dais and gathered people. They also do not have a concrete plan on how to capitalise on the yatra, as the leadership has not given any directions.
Leaders talk about prominent local community leaders not getting an audience with Rahul — in Mhow, a Seva Dal functionary complained that a senior leader got an entry for lawyers from Indore while those in the town were not invited or allowed while in Khargone’s Sanawad, a tribal municipal councillor felt that it would have been better if he met prominent Adivasi community leaders.
“It was a nice gesture that Rahul-ji showed respect to Tantia Mama. These things will have an impact on our party. But it would have been better if he met community leaders and not just tribal MLAs. We tried to reach out to the leadership but we couldn’t,” claimed Anil Vare, the councillor.
Travelling through the rural belt shows that there are Congress workers everywhere but they do not have offices and wherever the party had offices it was shut. The party units do not hold regular political meetings, as money is a constraint.
“We do not get money from the district or state leadership. We cannot hold programmes throughout the year. We do not have that many resources. We get active when elections are around. So, the yatra helped us. But now how to move forward is a question though we are better placed this time,” Khemraj Ghander, another traditional Congress supporter in Baswa, said.
In Mhow where Rahul visited BR Ambedkar memorial and addressed a press conference, the city Congress office remained shut and local workers say it opens only when there are programmes and it was the case in many localities. A shopkeeper, who does not know the name of the “uncle-ji” who comes once in a while to open the office, says, “it is opened only when there is any programme. It was open in the run-up to the yatra reaching Mhow.”
