New Delhi: The Congress party is set to launch a nearly two-week-long ‘Vote Adhikar Yatra’ in Bihar, led by Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, covering 50 assembly constituencies across 23 districts in a bid to mobilise public support ahead of the upcoming assembly elections.
This will be the party’s first major grassroots mobilisation in Bihar in decades, where its political influence has steadily declined with the emergence of regional leaders like Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar—both products of the Mandal movement that reshaped the state’s political landscape in the 1990s.
According to Congress general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal, the yatra will begin from Sasaram, the headquarters of Rohtas district, on 17 August and conclude with a rally in Patna on 1 September. “All leaders of the Mahagatbandhan (Opposition alliance) in Bihar including RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav will join,” Venugopal, who was in Sasaram Wednesday, said.
Congress leaders in the know said that the yatra was conceived as part of the party’s plans to build a sustained campaign around Rahul’s ‘vote chori’ allegations.
“Originally, the plan was to launch the yatra on 10 August. But it was postponed to 17 August after Rahul Gandhi’s presentation on vote chori was put off for a few days due to JMM founder Shibu Soren’s death,” a senior Congress leader told ThePrint. “The plan was to strike the iron while it is hot.”
Shashant Shekhar, a Congress leader from Patna, said, “During my travels, I have found that the issue of deletions from the voter list resonates strongly with people. They fear such deletions could cast doubt on their citizenship and, in turn, hinder their access to welfare schemes. The Yatra will bring these concerns to the forefront.”
It’s not just Bihar. The Congress will organise rallies on the voter list issue in all state capitals and major cities between 22 August and 7 September. On 14 August, it will take out candlelight marches across all district headquarters at 8 pm.
“He will not be on foot along the entire route. It will be a hybrid yatra like the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra that [Rahul] undertook last year from Manipur to Maharashtra. Other leaders of the alliance will join him in stretches. In fact, INDIA bloc leaders from other states are also expected to join the yatra,” Congress leader Anupam, who led the Yuva Halla Bol platform’s ‘Palayan Roko, Naukri Do’ movement, told ThePrint.
A look at the electoral history of the 50 assembly constituencies included in the yatra shows that the Congress-led alliance won 23 of these seats in the 2020 Bihar elections. Of those, the Congress alone secured 8 seats, having contested 20 of the 50 constituencies.
Anupam, who recently met Rahul in Delhi, said that the Congress MP was “extremely serious” about reviving the Congress in Bihar. “You will understand that if you observe his activities, from visiting the state to getting job fairs held, over the last few months,” he said.
Since February, Rahul has visited Bihar eight times, participating in various public events including protest marches, ‘samvidhan bachao’ sammelans, and screenings of films on Dalit icons, while also holding several rounds of meetings with the party’s state leadership.
Sources in the Congress told ThePrint that the party, which contested in 70 seats in the previous assembly elections and won 19, was “focusing more on winnability rather than quantity this time”.
“Last time, we were given many seats that the party could have never won. This time a different strategy has been adopted focusing more on seats that we can actually win. As a result, we may contest fewer seats this time. Another reason for that is the fact that Mahagatbandhan has more parties this time such as Vikassheel Insaan Party of Mukesh Sahni,” a Congress functionary said, adding that the Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party may also join the Mahagatbandhan alliance.
The Opposition alliance is yet to finalise seat-sharing. Sources said it is likely to happen after the culmination of the Yatra in Patna’s Gandhi Maidan.
Anupam said that while SIR and alleged voter list fraud are the central agendas of the Yatra, Rahul will also raise issues such as unemployment, distress migration and growing usage of drugs among the youth of Bihar while leading the march.
“The idea is to highlight the fact that Bihar is unable to fulfil even the most basic needs of people. The objective of exercises such as SIR is also to divert the attention of people from issues that matter,” he said.
(Edited by Vidhi Bhutra)
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