Rahul Gandhi’s Kisan Yatra: Is This the New Face of the Congress?

With the Kisan Yatra coming to an end, it is now time to assess Congress’ situation in UP elections and in India.

On the second day of his Mahayatra, Rahul Gandhi made a strong pitch for farm loan waiver. (Photo: PTI)

With Rahul Gandhi’s month-long Kisan Yatra from Deoria to Delhi concluding on Thursday, it is pointless to do a tally of Congress’ losses and gains. It will be more to the point to wonder whether Congress gained anything at all. Considering that it has a mere 28 out of 403 Assembly seats and 2 out of 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, it is not as if the Congress has a great deal to lose.

Congress’ Attempt to Break Free of its ‘VIP Image’

Whether a padayatra through Bulandshahr’s Bhatta Parsaul village to woo farmers, visiting poverty stricken Dalit houses, or interacting with college students- Rahul Gandhi has done all of it before. This time around, however, the efficient management of the whole exercise bore the stamp of Congress’ chief strategist Prashant Kishor.

The Khat Sabha incident in Deoria might have garnered headlines for all the wrong reasons, with farmers running away with the cots after the programme, but that did not stop the party from holding more such sabhas, and better managed ones too.

Instead of one-man speeches traditional to political campaigning, Congress VP Rahul Gandhi spent time on one-on-one interactions with farmers. Intent on shedding his VIP persona, Gandhi had chai-samosa and nimbu-shikanji at highway dhabas and even hugged common citizens at local political gatherings.

Studying up on the Vote Bank

Rahul Gandhi’s seemingly spontaneous stops at every temple, mosque, church and gurdwara during his roadshow were the product of keen strategising. His route was carefully planned so as to take him through the city’s Muslim and Dalit localities, vote banks coveted by the Congress.

The Muslim community’s disavowal of Mulayam Singh Yadav in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections has given the Congress hope that it might decide to throw in its lot with Congress in 2017.

This hope was behind Rahul Gandhi’s decision to pick the brains of maulanas at the three centres of Islamic scholarship- Jaunpur, Lucknow and Deoband. To maintain ‘balance’, however, Gandhi also paid his dues at Ayodhya’s Hanumangarhi, Mirzapur’s Vidhyavasini, Chitrakoot’s Kamtanath, and Mathura’s Dwarkadhish temples, among others.

The Farmers’ List of Demands

The popular slogan calls for Karza maaf, bijli bill half, samarthan mulya ka karo hisaab (Waive (farmer’s) loans, reduced electricity bill, keep a tab on MSP) but the most important bit there is the first part- the demand for loan waiver.

At some distance from Rahul Gandhi’s Khat Sabha in Raibareli, Santosh Kumar, a shopkeeper, sits frying samosas and asks us:

Isn’t there some way I could get this form for a loan waiver?

Clearly, the interest in loan waivers extends beyond the farming community. Ranbir Singh, a farmer in Buladshahr’s Sikhera village tells The Quint:

Filling in this <i>maang patra </i>(requisition form) means that all our credit is waived off if the Congress comes to power. They assured us of this which is why they will get the vote.

This pervasive interest in the Kisan maang patra is perhaps the biggest achievement of this campaign.

A senior member of Prashant Kishor’s team told Quint Hindi that 75 lakh maang patras have been filled as of 6 October, with a target of two crore being set to be filled by 31 October.

These pamphlets will be fowarded by Rahul Gandhi to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. According to Congress sources, if the Prime Minister fails to make time for them, the pamphlets will be still be presented to him through some symbolic proceeding.

A More Aggressive Social Media Presence

With strategic changes in field campaigning, the Congress’ social media presence too has shed its usual languor. As of 10 October, while BJP has 753,709 likes on its Uttar Pradesh uttar dega (Uttar Pradesh will answer) Facebook page, Congress’ ‘27 Saal UP Behal’ (UP Has Suffered For 27 Years) has garnered 782,353 likes. UP Congress’ Twitter handle, where all updates regarding Congress’ campaign can be found, has gathered 14,800 followers.

Apart from this, UP Congress’ WhatsApp presence is such that its associated groups, around fifteen hundred of them, broadcast its messages to over one lakh mobile phones.

The Local Leaders and Party Workers Are Pumped up

Sushil Chaudhary, hopeful of a ticket from Bulandshahr, spoke to The Quint:

People used to say earlier that Congress leaders never want to step out of their houses. But even our national leader can be seen campaigning hard on the roads now, and our workers too.

This is a big change, indeed. Earlier, the party workers used to be visibly upset and dispirited during campaigns like the one in Bhatta Parsaul.

But the bustle of activity and enthusiasm evident in the UP Congress’ Lucknow office, combined with the optimism of party workers, convinces one that though it might be too early to celebrate the party’s rejuvenation, it has certainly shifted out of the ICU and into the general ward now.

Congress’ Secret Weapon- Priyanka Gandhi

Finally, the party seems ready to oblige those who have repeatedly inquired into Priyanka Gandhi’s political foray. Rahul Gandhi has prepared the ground with his Kisan Yatra and seems ready to let her sister take the stage.

According to Congress sources, Priyanka Gandhi is expected to hit the campaign trail in November-December. Preparations for her foray are currently underway. It is claimed that Priyanka, who till now has limited her field of action to Amethi-Raibareli, will hold more than 150 rallies all over UP for the 2017 elections.

Local leaders say that this will prove to be a game changer for the Grand Old Party since there is a lot of curiosity about Priyanka Gandhi, not only in party workers but also the general populace.

It seems clear that the steam gathered by Rahul Gandhi’s month-long yatra is expected to propel the party forward. Sources assure all that strategist Prashant Kishor is only just getting started and has plenty of arrows in his quiver yet.

Whatever be the results, the campaign season leading up to 2017 UP elections promise interesting times ahead.