New Delhi, Aug 25 Hoping to turnaround its political fortunes in 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress party has announced to launch its mass outreach programme 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' from September 7.
The Yatra that will start from Kanyakumari is supposed to cover more than 3,500 km traversing through 12 states. The Yatra is expected to be led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. On August 23, the party launched the logo, tagline and website of the Yatra.
Rahul Gandhi and Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh interacted with the members of the civil society on August 22 to invite people to participate in the Yatra. Notably, since the arrival of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the national political landscape, the country's grand old party has been relegated to distant No. 2.
The party not only fared badly in 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha poll, there has been a substantial dent in its support base in the past few years. The Congress party will have to improve its performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, else the party will be thrown into the vortex of existential crisis.
CVoter-IndiaTracker conducted a nationwide survey on behalf of to know people's views about the impact of the Yatra on Congress' political fortunes. The survey revealed that there was sharp division in people's opinion on the issue, while 48 per cent respondents opined that the mass outreach programme will help the party electorally, 52 per cent respondents disagreed.
During the survey, views of both the urban and rural voters were also divided on similar lines. As per the survey data, while 42 per cent urban voters stated that mass contact programmes will attract voters towards Congress, 58 per cent of urban voters did not share the sentiment.
Similarly, while 47 per cent of rural voters believe that Yatra can help the Congress in winning elections, 53 per cent of rural voters shared a completely different opinion.
Predictably, during the survey, the political supporters expressed their views as per their ideological leanings. According to the survey data, while 73 per cent of NDA supporters believe that the mass outreach programme will not help Congress, 64 per cent of opposition supporters said that Yatra criss crossing 12 states will reverse the political fortunes of the main opposition party that was reduced to just 52 Lok Sabha seats in 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
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