His voice hoarse from all the speeches he had made during his 4,000-mile march across the breadth of India, Rahul Gandhi urged people at a rally in Uttar Pradesh state to think hard.
At the heart of his campaign ahead of the election, which is likely to be held in May, Gandhi has been walking across the country, from east to west, holding rallies every day.
His cavalcade set off from Anand Bhawan, the historic house, now a museum, from where his great grandfather and grandfather took part in the freedom movement against British rule.
Compared with the monolith of the BJP which exudes confidence about coming back with an even larger majority – together with its partners it won 353 of the 543 parliamentary seats in 2019 – the India alliance is struggling even with the basics such as seat-sharing arrangements in key constituencies.
As Sanjay Jha, a former Congress leader and now a political analyst, points out, among those devastated by the pandemic and reeling from economic hardship, the call for a caste census to re-allocate the country’s resources will strike a chord.
“But where Gandhi is failing is articulating this message in an idiom that will click or in a catchy slogan that’s part of a narrative that could project him as an alternative to Modi.
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