Congress pins hope on 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' to revive party in Kerala

'Bharat Jodo Yatra', led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, will enter Kerala on Sunday—giving fresh hope about the revival of the party in the state. Congress has suffered back-to-back electoral setbacks in the state, even though it performed impressively in the 2019 Lok Sabha election by winning 19 of the 20 seats from the state.

Fresh concerns for the Congress since then are the social engineering of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to strengthen rapport with minority communities, Bharatiya Janata Party’s desperate bids to improve its presence in Kerala, and reports of a section of the Indian Union Muslim League weighing the options of severing alliance with the Congress and joining the Communist Party of India (Marxist) -led Left Democratic Front.

More pressing for the national party is BJP’s focused campaigns in Wayanad—Gandhi won the Lok Sabha seat in 2019—which triggered speculations that union minister Smriti Irani, who defeated Gandhi in Amethi, may contest from Wayanad in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

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Amidst this political scenario, the 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' comes to Kerala and would go through the state for nearly three weeks until September 29.

However, Congress has an uphill task at hand initiated by Rahul Gandhi, political analyst Joseph C Mathew said. The party’s sweeping victory in Kerala in 2019 was unexpected. Most political observers considered the win to be an impact of Gandhi’s contest at Wayanad.

Three years on, there were major changes in the state’s political scenario. Thus, according to observers, initiatives like 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' could benefit the Congress in Kerala in preparing for the next Lok Sabha polls.

Over the last few years, there is a change in the Christian and Muslim minority communities—considered to be Congress-led United Democratic Front’s vote bank in Kerala—as the CPM worked on enhancing its rapport with the communities and religious leaders, by taking favourable stands on many of their demands, like economic reservation and recruitment to Kerala Wakf Board.

The only relief in Congress camp in recent months was it being able to retain the Thrikkakkara constituency victory in the Assembly by-poll, overcoming the CPM’s aggressive campaign in the region.

Muslim strongholds of Malappuram, which comes under the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, had played key role in Gandhi’s victory in 2019. Hence it was now important for Congress to ensure continued support of the Muslims.

Even as the BJP saw a decline in its vote share in the 2021 state Assembly polls, the saffron party had not lost hopes. Reportedly the party had identified some constituencies and started preparing there for the Lok Sabha polls. Union ministers were reportedly given charge of each such constituency and a recent visit of external affairs minister S Jaishankar to Thiruvananthapuram triggered speculations about whether he would contest from the state capital. Currently, Congress’s Shashi Tharoor represented the constituency for the last three consecutive terms.