- The tradition of political yatras continued in Bihar even after the end of British rule.
- During the 1960s and ’70s, socialist leaders like Karpoori Thakur took out marches for reservation and the other rights of the backward castes.
- Congress' Rahul Gandhi has been touring Bihar almost every month since the beginning of this year, holding roadshows and engaging with the youth—almost as if it were one uninterrupted political march.
In its bid to reclaim lost political ground in Bihar, the Congress has deployed the yatra, or march, several times over the past few decades as a tangible strategic tool to foster public engagement with the party. This is also evident in the words Rahul Gandhi chose for his tweet before the Voter Adhikar Yatra was flagged off: “We are coming to the people…join us…” Indeed, what could be better than a march across the districts to directly mobilise people ahead of an assembly election?
The latest yatra was preceded in March-April by another Congress campaign—the ‘Stop migration, provide employment’ march led by Kanhaiya Kumar. And Rahul has been touring Bihar almost every month since the beginning of this year, holding roadshows and engaging with the youth—almost as if it were one uninterrupted political march.
Just how important a place the yatra occupies in the state’s political landscape could be illustrated with the example of political strategist Prashant Kishor’s newbie Jan Suraaj Party. Before officially announcing the party’s formation on October 2, 2024, he led a two-year-long padayatra (foot march) across 235 blocks in Bihar. Later, when the party contested bypolls in four constituencies, it lost everywhere but bagged a total of 66,493 votes—not bad for a first-timer at the hustings. Getting so many votes without a strong grassroots organisational network, analysts say, highlights the impact of the yatra. No wonder Kishor has been following it up since with his ‘Bihar Badlao’ (changing Bihar) rallies organised in yatra mode.
“Regardless of the rallying point—religion, caste or social justice—a yatra never fails to connect the party with the people,” says author Premkumar Mani, a former member of the Bihar legislative council who has witnessed the election campaigns of both Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar. Recalling a 1991 incident in Rohtas district, he says, “During a yatra, Lalu noticed a child holding a flag and shouting ‘Lalu Yadav murdabad’ (death to Lalu Yadav). He immediately stepped out of his vehicle, picked up the child and made him enthusiastically chant the same slogan. That was Lalu’s way of connecting with people. The political ground he broke with such yatras was a significant reason for his 15-year tenure in Bihar. Then, in 2005, Nitish led a yatra across Bihar before coming to power, which he has held ever since.”
Before India’s independence, Mani points out, both Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru had used yatras to strengthen the Congress. In his autobiography, Nehru claims he interacted with three crore people among India’s then 40 crore population during his 1937 tour of the country. In 1930, when he became Congress president, the party had 50,000 members. Membership grew tenfold—to 500,000--following his tours. The notable marches in Bihar included Gandhi’s Harijan march, which helped the Congress establish long-term connections with Dalit communities in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. The Bihar leg of the Harijan march began on May 7, 1934, and passed through Patna, Gaya, Muzaffarpur, Bhagalpur, Darbhanga and Champaran. Gandhi had started using the term “Harijan” for the Dalits after the 1932 Poona Pact with B.R. Ambedkar.
Earlier, in 1917, Gandhi had toured villages and interacted with peasants when he led the Champaran satyagraha against forced indigo cultivation, forcing the British to end the exploitative practice. Rajendra Prasad and Anugrah Narayan Singh, too, led marches to mobilise people for the freedom movement.
The tradition of political yatras continued in Bihar even after the end of British rule. In 1951, Vinoba Bhave’s Bhoodan movement involved walking across the state to request land donations from landlords. This resulted in the redistribution of millions of acres among poor and landless peasants. Then, in 1974-75, when Jayaprakash Narayan’s Sampoorna Kranti Yatra (march for total revolution) emerged from the Bihar student movement, he toured villages campaigning against corruption, authoritarianism and social injustice. This movement later became part of the anti-Emergency struggle, shaking Indira Gandhi’s regime and leading to the end of the Emergency—and to the first non-Congress (Janata Party) government at the Centre. The foundation of this national movement was laid through marches in Bihar.
During the 1960s and ’70s, socialist leaders like Karpoori Thakur took out marches for reservation and the other rights of the backward castes. They travelled village to village to raise awareness among the Dalits and backward castes, resulting in the implementation of ‘backward class reservation’ during Thakur’s tenure. In the 1990s, Lalu as CM led many social justice marches, reshaping the state’s caste-based political equations and ushering in the era of backward and Dalit politics. Later, Nitish’s marches focused on development and good governance. His ‘Development with Justice March’ (2005–10), for instance, emphasised roads, education electricity, and law-and-order reforms. This strengthened his image as the ‘Sushasan (good governance) Babu’ and helped him secure a massive majority in 2010. Since 2020, Lalu’s son and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav has led marches on issues of employment and social justice, while the smaller parties and leftist organisations have focused on farmers and labourers, too.
According to senior journalist Urmilesh, the timing of a march is always significant. “A march serves as a medium for social dialogue and connects people to the broader society. It helps understand the present consciousness of society. Rahul’s march is particularly important as he engages directly with people on critical issues,” he says.
As for the election-winning power of yatras, experts point to Rahul’s Bharat Jodo Yatra of 2022-23. The Congress lost Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh in the immediate aftermath, but it also won Karnataka and Telangana. Moreover, from winning just 46 seats in 2014 and 56 in 2019, the party made a substantial leap to 99 seats in the 2024 general election. Experts claim the yatra strengthened Rahul’s image and helped the Congress re-connect with the people, especially in reclaiming its traditional Muslim, Dalit and Yadav vote banks in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh after the decades of marginalisation that followed an era when the party ruled these states on its own.
Citing a Leninist aphorism—“Go to the masses, learn from them, and return what you learn from them to the masses again”—to explain the importance of a march, analyst Surur Ahmed says, “A march has its own power. Rahul’s ‘Pappu’ image transformed completely after the Bharat Jodo Yatra. Political parties take out marches to expand their organisation and strengthen their cadre.” According to Ahmed, Rahul’s extensive recent travels, in fact, reflect the party’s weak organisational structure. “The BJP doesn’t take out such marches as it is the only party in India with a strong cadre today. This strength, however, was built through marches in the past, beginning with L.K. Advani’s Ram Rath Yatra,” he adds.
The BJP, which initially won only two Lok Sabha seats in the 1980s, bagged 85 seats in the 1989 general election and 120 in 1991. Advani’s Rath Yatra started on September 25, 1990, at Somnath in Gujarat and covered nearly 10,000 km on its way to Ayodhya in UP in order to popularise the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. This march expanded the BJP’s base across towns and villages, ultimately establishing it as a major national force and contributing to the rise to 182 Lok Sabha seats in 1998, enabling it to form a government in coalition at the Centre.
The power of marches can also be seen in Andhra Pradesh where Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy (YSR) led a 1,500-km historic march over 60 days in 2004 that brought the Congress to power, defeating the Telugu Desam Party. Two years after YSR’s death in a 2009 helicopter crash, his son Jagan Mohan Reddy founded the YSR Congress Party. In 2017, he toured 13 districts for 350 days, interacting with around two crore people and creating a wave of public support that helped his party win 151 out of 175 seats in the 2019 assembly election. Similarly, Bhupesh Baghel’s extensive pre-election march was instrumental in the Congress’s first victory in Chhattisgarh in 2018. It’s too early to tell whether the Voter Adhikar Yatra could make a similar impact for Rahul in Bihar.
