It was perhaps Mahatma Gandhi who first proved how effective and forceful a yatra could be as a tool of political communication with his Dandi March but that was spirited by the country’s thirst for independence. Kerala is set to witness State-wide yatras galore this January-February but these marches by political parties are exercises aimed exclusively at mobilising the strength and funds needed to fight the Assembly election to be held in May.
Prominent among these yatras are those of the Congress, leader of the ruling UDF, CPI(M) heading the Opposition lDF, Muslim league the second biggest constituent of the ruling front and CPI, second biggest force in the leftist coalition. Reports suggest that more yatras are likely to be held in the season.
Though workers of the respective parties are doing their best to ensure the success of their Netas’ Kerala marches, it is — as it always happens in Kerala — the Marxist yatra to be captained by CPI(M) Politburo member and former State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan which is getting the most media time and space.
Pinarayi’s march, Nava Kerala Yatra, will be flagged off from Kumbala in northern-most Kasaragod district on January 15 and will conclude in Thiruvananthapuram on February 14 after touching almost all the 140 Assembly constituencies in the State. The CPI(M) is in the process of finalizing the preparations for the yatra.
In the context of the rivalry between Pinarayi and Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan, the left’s biggest crowd-puller and vote-catcher, the CPI(M)’s yatra has already triggered discussions in the media and among the people over who between the two will be the left’s leader for the Assembly poll campaign and its chief ministerial candidate.
This is the fourth Kerala march of the CPI(M) Pinarayi is going to lead. His previous poll-time yatras had started with the speculation that he could become the left’s chief ministerial candidate but that never happened. In 2006 and 2011, Achuthanandan had, despite his advanced age, defeated Pinarayi in the intra-party pre-poll battle.
State Congress president VM Sudheeran will lead his party’s Kerala march from January 4 to February 9 at a time when the Congress and the ruling UDF are houses of chaos due to internal battles. This is the second all-Kerala march Sudheeran is going to lead since he was appointed as PCC chief by Sonia Gandhi on February 10, 2014.
These State-wide yatras are also occasions for the parties to mobilize the funds needed for elections as well as organisational functioning. “For the same reason, the people in general are not very enthusiastic about these exercises as they are the victims of the party workers who invade homes, shops and offices with receipt books,” says a senior journalist.
It is not yet clear how effective Sudheeran’s last all-Kerala march in November-December, 2014 was politically but it indeed was a success financially. The march helped the Congress to collect a minimum of Rs 12 crore. In the past, the Congress had collected enough money to buy a building to house its State headquarters through a Yatra undertaken by the then PCC chief.
The Muslim league’s Kerala march to be held from January 24 to February 11 will be captained by its legislative party leader and State Industries Minister PK Kunhalikutty. The idea of the march itself caused feud in the party and the top leadership had to select four top functionaries as vice-captains to solve the problem.
The CPI will hold its all-Kerala march, headed by State secretary Kanam Rajendran, from January 29 to February 18. There are reports that KM Mani, chairman of the Kerala Congress (M) who resigned as Finance minister last month following the Rs 1 crore bar bribery charge against him, may hold a Yatra of his own mainly to “explain his innocence”.
The season’s first Yatra was held by Vellappally Natesan, general secretary of SNDP Yogam, outfit of Hindu lower caste Ezhavas, from November 23. At the conclusion of the march on December 5, he declared the launch of a new political party of the majority communities, Bharat Dharma Jana Sena, which will most likely forge an alliance with the BJP for the Assembly poll.