Cong upbeat in NE, but political pundits are not impressed

Guwahati/Agartala, Aug 13 (IANS) Congress leaders from all the eight northeastern states have urged the central leaders including party president Mallikarjun Kharge to include the region in the second phase of Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra in a bid to regain lost ground.

The Congress’ state party chiefs and senior leaders from the northeastern states during a meeting with the central party leaders including Kharge in Delhi on July 15 requested them to include the region in the second leg of the Bharat Jodo Yatra as the region had been a stronghold of the party for decades.

“We believe Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra would rejuvenate the Congress leadership, workers, supporters and sympathisers in the northeastern region before next year’s Lok Sabha elections,” Tripura Pradesh Congress’ newly appointed president Ashish Kumar Saha told IANS.

Saha is very optimistic that Gandhi's second phase of the Bharat Jodo Yatra would be more successful than the first phase, in which the Congress leader walked almost 4,000 kilometres from Kanyakumari in Kerala to Kashmir in between September 7 last year and January 30 this year.

The Bharat Jodo Yatra in more than 130 days covered 12 states and two Union Territories.

Congress sources said that the second leg of the Yatra was expected to begin from Gujarat on October 2, Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday, and extend to the northeastern state of Meghalaya.

“The schedule of the second phase of the Bharat Jodo Yatra has not yet been finalized. A committee has been formed at the central level to chalk out the next phase of the Yatra and the details are being finalised,” a Congress leader told IANS.

All India Congress Committee secretary Szarita Laitphlang however refused to comment on the proposed second leg of the Bharat Jodo Yatra as the schedule was not yet finalised.

“Yes, if Rahul Gandhi visits the northeast, it would be good for the party,” she told IANS.

Though the Congress leaders are very confident that Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra would help the party to regain lost ground and secure electoral mileage in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, political pundits are skeptical about the possible benefits to the party from this padayatra.

Writer and political commentator Sekhar Datta said that after India’s Independence, for many decades the Congress had governed the northeastern region but now it has been struggling for its survival in the region.

“The organisational network of the Congress in most of the northeastern regions is very weak. The Central leaders of the party very occasionally or just before the elections visited the states,” Datta told IANS.

The Congress is the only opposition party in Assam, where in the 126-member assembly the party currently has 27 members while in the other states of the region the party’s presence in the legislative assemblies and other elected bodies, is very meagre.

Leaders of the Left parties, which are allies of the newly floated Congress led opposition alliance INDIA, are also very enthusiastic about Gandhi’s second phase of the Bharat Jodo Yatra.

CPI-M politburo member Manik Sarkar, who was the chief minister of Tripura for 20 years (1998-2018), said that the Bharat Jodo Yatra initiative taken to foil the attempt to divide the country is very good.

“If Rahul Gandhi comes to Tripura and other northeastern states to unify the country, the people would certainly welcome him. It would help to thwart the divisive policies and practices of the BJP,” Sarkar told IANS.

In the assembly elections in February in three northeastern states – Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya with 60 seats each -- the Congress performed very poorly.

The party secured only three and five seats in Tripura and Meghalaya respectively while it, like the 2018 polls, could not open its account in Nagaland.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, which ousted the Congress in the northeastern states is now governing four states there – Assam, Tripura, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh – while its allies are running governments in the remaining four states.

The BJP leaders claimed that the region is now almost “Congress Mukt” (Congress free) and Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra would do nothing.

Tripura Pradesh BJP president Rajib Bhattacharjee said that those who divided India earlier are now organising the Bharat Jodo Yatra which is very ridiculous.

“Congress when it was in power both at the Centre and the states did nothing for the northeast region. When Narendra Modi became Prime Minister in 2014, then the real development of the region started.

"During the past nine years, the region witnessed all-round development in all sectors -- connectivity to academic spheres, health to public welfare, technology to rural development,” Bhattacharjee told IANS.

Saying that Modi visited the region more than 50 times in nine years, while other central ministers and BJP leaders frequently toured the region, the BJP leader claimed that the Congress leaders are 'seasonal tourists' to the region.

Manipur Congress spokesperson Ningombam Bupenda Meitei said that Rahul Gandhi’s tour was always beneficial both for the Congress and the common man.

“Wherever Rahul Gandhi goes, he unites the divided hearts and minds for an inclusively better society.

"He came to Manipur to unite all the people of the state. Northeast India needs him and the country needs the Bharat Jodo Yatra to stand united in today's scenario of divisive politics,” he told IANS.

(Sujit Chakraborty can be contacted at sujit.c@ians.in)

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