New Delhi, India – A whole bunch of individuals on Monday defied the cruel Himalayan chilly as they gathered in Srinagar, the most important metropolis in Indian-administered Kashmir, to hitch opposition chief Rahul Gandhi on the final day of his almost 150-day cross-country “unity” march.

Launched on September 7, 2022 from the nation’s southernmost tip of Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu state, the Bharat Jodo Yatra or Unite India March traversed via 14 states protecting greater than 70 districts.

It noticed numerous folks – from outstanding civil society members and activists to native leaders and celebrities – making an attempt to maintain up tempo with the 52-year-old scion of India’s most well-known political household all through his journey spanning a distance of almost 3,500km (2,175 miles).

Political observers described the march as a last-gasp try by Gandhi to revitalise the fortunes of his beleaguered Congress Occasion forward of nationwide elections due subsequent yr.

However for his supporters, the march was an audacious try to bridge the nation’s political and non secular divisions, which they blame on the insurance policies of the Hindu nationalist authorities of the Bharatiya Janata Occasion (BJP), led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“This can be a march to unite the folks of the nation towards the bigotry and hatred,” mentioned 48-year-old Uzma Sakib, who flew greater than 2,000km (1,243 miles) from the southern state of Telangana to hitch the march in her native state of Kashmir.

“He [Gandhi] has resurrected as an individual and a pacesetter who can really feel the ache and empathise with the aam aadmi [common man]. And that is the sort of chief that our nation wants,” Sakib informed Al Jazeera from the Kashmir valley.

“He’s our solely hope.”

Reviving hopes of a ‘comeback’

The Congress Occasion has ruled India for a complete of almost 60 years since independence in 1947, however its affect has sharply waned since shedding nationwide elections to the BJP in 2014, adopted by a slew of defeats in state and native elections within the years that adopted.

It presently holds a transparent majority in solely three of India’s 31 states and union territories, with analysts pointing to the social gathering’s lack of a clear-cut ideological framework and its incapability to let go of the Gandhi household’s affect for its poor election showings.

In line with the Nationwide Election Watch and the Affiliation for Democratic Reforms, a complete of 399 electoral candidates stop Congress to hitch different events between 2014 and 2021. Throughout that interval, the social gathering misplaced 39 out of 49 state elections.

And whereas many outstanding Congress leaders have confronted public discontent over time, it has been beneath the de facto management of Rahul Gandhi – usually portrayed as an incompetent and reluctant politician by a piece of the Indian media – that the social gathering’s electoral positive aspects touched historic lows within the 2014 and 2019 basic elections, profitable simply 44 and 52 seats, out of 543, respectively.

Now, some observers say the march is step one – albeit a really small one – in the proper route to tug Congress and its scion out of the political wilderness.

“It isn’t a simple course of. It takes years for leaders to emerge as nationwide leaders,” mentioned Rasheed Kidwai, a veteran journalist and political analyst, who has been protecting the Congress Occasion for many years. “Regardless of that, what he [Rahul Gandhi] has managed to do via this yatra is unconventional.”

Nonetheless, Kidwai was fast to warning that the march will not be sufficient.

“On the finish of the day, it’s the vote that issues – and that’s the place the yatra has insurmountable challenges,” he mentioned, noting that the BJP managed to extend its vote share from 31 p.c in 2014 to 38 p.c 5 years later.

“The job of a political social gathering is to win elections. That’s the barometer on which a celebration is assessed. How this yatra would show for the electoral positive aspects of the social gathering must be seen,” he added.

Neither Congress leaders nor supporters, although, declare the march is particularly aimed toward enhancing the social gathering’s election outcomes. As an alternative, Congress asserts the march seeks to handle “rampant unemployment and inflation, the politics of hate and division and the over-centralisation of the political system” within the nation.

“It’s a combat towards the perspective of hatred which prevails in our nation and never a debate about who would win or lose,” Salman Khurshid, a senior Congress chief, informed Al Jazeera.

Khurshid acknowledged the social gathering should step up efforts to unfold its message however expressed confidence that the march had led to a change in the best way the general public seen each Congress and Gandhi. “My political intuition says that folks have began trying as much as Rahul as somebody who has the flexibility to attract the eye of individuals, not simply in pockets, however proper throughout the nation,” he mentioned.

Simply one other ‘rebranding’ effort

However for the BJP, the march was simply one other failed try at rebranding the picture of Gandhi.

“The aim of this yatra is to not unify the opposition, because it’s been claimed,” Gopal Krishna Agarwal, the nationwide spokesperson of the BJP, informed Al Jazeera.

“The Congress Occasion is barely making an attempt to relaunch Rahul Gandhi and this effort has been happening for fairly a while now,” he mentioned.

A examine this month discovered that solely 13 p.c of respondents thought-about the march as one more “re-branding” train for Gandhi, whereas 29 p.c firmly believed it was successful in uniting the lots.

Nonetheless, 37 p.c nonetheless believed the march wouldn’t translate into votes for Congress, in keeping with the CVoter survey, carried out by the nation’s media conglomerate India Immediately group.

Again in Srinagar, 32-year-old Ishita Sedha, a staunch Congress loyalist, was getting ready to return to her hometown in Uttarakhand on the end result of the 150-day-long journey.

“For me, it has been a non secular journey,” Sedha informed Al Jazeera, describing the march as “life-changing”.

“Now I can proudly say that I’ve carried out one thing for my nation. And this complete march has actually been a studying floor for me, which I aspire to proceed on my particular person stage,” she mentioned.