To revitalise the Congress’s base on the ground and reach out to people before the crucial Lok Sabha elections just two months away, top party leader Rahul Gandhi is launching his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra from Thoubal in Manipur Sunday.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge as well as other senior party leaders will be present to flag off the Yatra. The location of Manipur is important as the state has been roiled by ethnic violence since May last year. The Congress has repeatedly hit out at the BJP-led government in Manipur as well as at the Centre for not being able to curb the clashes between the Meitei and Kuki communities in the state.

This Yatra, coming a year after Rahul’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, will be key for the Congress as it attempts to set a narrative to take on the might of the Narendra Modi-led BJP. It is set to traverse 6,713 km, and will be undertaken in buses and also partly on foot. The Yatra will cover 110 districts, 100 Lok Sabha seats and 337 Assembly segments in 67 days, before concluding in Mumbai on March 20 or 21.

But the big question remains: Can the Yatra pay electoral dividends to the Congress in the Lok Sabha polls?

Manoj CG writes that while the Congress has said it was not an electoral Yatra but an “ideological Yatra”, the list of the nearly 100 Lok Sabha constituencies that Rahul will pass through indicates that the party is heavily focusing on the Hindi heartland. Last month, the party was routed in three Assembly polls — Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh — in this region.

The grand old party has also extended invitations to its INDIA alliance partners to join the Yatra when it passes through their strongholds. The Yatra will also be tracked closely in these states to gauge the understanding and equations between the Congress and its allies on the ground there.

Did the INDIA bloc pick Janata Dal (United) president and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar as its convener? Did the grouping name Kharge as its chairperson?

These were the questions doing the rounds when a virtual meeting of the leaders of the INDIA parties was held on Saturday afternoon. The JD(U) has been pushing for Kumar’s name as the alliance’s convener for a while now. But when his name was announced as the bloc’s convener along with Kharge as its chief, Nitish declined the offer.

Santosh Singh, speaking to sources within the JD(U), writes that there might be a few reasons behind Kumar’s move. The JD(U) leaders see that decision as delayed and feel the “Congress lacks conviction” in putting its weight behind Kumar.

Kumar also seems to be waiting for Congress to offer him a more “substantive” role in the coalition. “Nitish expects the Congress to talk to all important allies and then convince him to accept the convener position with a definite role,” said a JD (U) leader.

Another development from the INDIA bloc was the absence of the Trinamool Congress’s Mamata Banerjee, the SP’s Akhilesh Yadav and Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Uddhav Thackeray at this meeting where decisions about Kharge and Kumar were taken.

While sources told The Indian Express that Akhilesh had conveyed before the meeting that he would be on board with the decisions taken by the leaders, there is apprehension on whether the Bengal CM would agree.

Talking to reporters in Pune, NCP chief Sharad Pawar said Kumar’s name was suggested for the post of convener at the meeting but the Bihar CM was of the view that a team of party chiefs should be formed and that there is no need to appoint a convener.

In the coming days, Kumar’s moves and the grouping’s next steps will be closely watched.

Alleging that the Centre has issued directions for demolishing slum clusters in Delhi, the AAP’s convener of the national capital, Gopal Rai, said the party will launch a campaign against it and hold a protest outside the BJP headquarters on Sunday.

The party is calling it the “Ghar Bachao, BJP Hatao (Save the house, remove the BJP)” campaign.

“AAP leaders will hold public meetings in slum clusters to create awareness against the BJP’s plan to demolish slums,” Rai told PTI, alleging that the Centre has directed various land-owning agencies, especially those under its jurisdiction, to remove slum clusters in Delhi.

“The BJP seems bent on turning people homeless in this biting cold. Before elections, the BJP promises to provide homes to slum-dwellers. After the polls, it starts demolishing their accommodation,” he told a press conference.

Hitting back at the AAP, the BJP alleged the Arvind Kejriwal government had blocked the implementation of the Centre’s housing scheme, the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna, in Delhi, thereby failing to allot around 50,000 housing units constructed for slum-dwellers.

— With inputs from PTI