Congress won six seats in the northeast along Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo rally route

The route that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took for his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra (BJNY) went through six of the seven Lok Sabha seats which the party won on June 4.

These constituencies – Inner Manipur, Outer Manipur, Nagaland, Jorhat, Nagaon, and Dhubri – encompass 20 of the 28 districts covered by Mr. Gandhi and other senior Congress leaders during the 63-day rally for “unity and justice” from January 14 to March 16.

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Meghalaya’s Tura, the seventh constituency bagged by the Congress in the region, is believed to have benefited from the spillover effect of the yatra that traversed the adjoining Shillong constituency in Meghalaya and the Dhubri and Guwahati constituencies in Assam.

‘Heart-to-heart connect’

The rally had started in Thoubal, the home district of Manipur’s Congress Legislature Party leader and former Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh and State Congress president K. Meghachandra Singh. The yatra then passed through Imphal East and Kangpokpi, two of the districts worst affected by the ongoing ethnic conflict between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities. 

“The entire credit for the performance of the Congress in Manipur and the other northeastern States goes to Rahul Gandhi for his heart-to-heart connect with the people along the yatra route,” the Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee’s senior spokesperson Ningombam Bupenda Meitei told The Hindu.

Assam’s holiest shrine

The Kamakhya Temple atop the Neelachal Hills in Guwahati is the most sacred Hindu pilgrimage destination in the northeast. However, for people in Assam adhering to the order of Vaishnavism propounded by saint-reformer Srimanta Sankaradeva, the holiest place is Batadrava, where Sankaradeva was born in the 15th century; Batadrava is also a key Assembly segment of the Nagaon Lok Sabha constituency.

On January 22, the Assam government prevented Mr. Gandhi from entering the Batadrava Than, a shrine.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma claimed the Congress leader was not stopped, but asked not to visit Batadrava Than during the consecration of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya as it could cause law-and-order problems. The shrine is almost equivalent to the Ram Temple in terms of spirituality for the people of Assam.

“Not letting anyone in is against the teachings of Srimanta Sankaradeva who embraced people from all faiths, castes, and classes. Some of the great reformer’s disciples were Muslims. What happened on January 22 is something the Assamese people do not relate to,” said a leader of the Assam Satra Mahasabha, the apex body of Vaishnav monasteries, speaking on the condition of anonymity.