Gandhi walks 2,000 miles to challenge Modi in 2024 election

Bloomberg

After more than 100 days walking nearly the entire length of India, Rahul Gandhi, scion of the nation’s most famous political dynasty, stood before a shivering crowd in rural Himachal Pradesh as a cheer went up.
Bearded and clad in a white t-shirt, Gandhi bore none of the vestiges of wealth or elitism that have smudged his family’s name in recent years. In the village of Ghatota, Gandhi’s message to supporters on a cold day this month was a simple one: “We started this march to bring people together.”
His journey through India — a 2,170 mile trek from the country’s southernmost tip to the icy north of Kashmir — marks a do-or-die moment for Gandhi, 52, who was broadly written off after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party defeated his party in the last two general elections. Once an unbeatable force in Indian politics, Gandhi’s Congress Party has struggled to connect with voters and overcome a reputation blotted by corruption scandals and leadership exoduses.
With India’s national election less than 15 months away, Gandhi is trying to divert attention from Modi, who is angling for a third consecutive term. By stopping in the smallest and most remote of villages, Gandhi has sold himself as one among the masses, and as a leader capable of counteracting what government critics see as the BJP’s efforts to push Hindu majoritarian views in a secular nation.
“We will keep on opening shops of love in the bazaar of hate,” Gandhi said at a press conference in the northern town of Hoshiarpur in Punjab. “The aim of the march is to stand against violence, unemployment, price rises and income inequality.”
The trek is rich with symbolism, recalling a similar journey made in 1930 by Mahatma Gandhi, India’s revered independence hero, who walked in protest of taxes imposed by British colonizers.
“Rahul Gandhi — ceaseless, purposeful — is the nucleus of the energy” that has inspired people to join him on his march, said Anshul Avijit, a Congress leader.
But some political observers are still doubtful that Gandhi’s walk, which ends Monday in the city of Srinagar, will do much to dent the BJP’s dominance on the national stage — unless the Congress Party figures out a way to widen its base. More than a third of respondents in a recent survey said the march created buzz, but wouldn’t change India’s current political hierarchy.