SRINAGAR: Several hundred people gathered as snow fell in held Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar on Monday to mark the end of Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi’s foot march that he began at the southern tip of the country 135 days ago.

The “Bharat Jodo Yatra”, or Unite India March, was aimed at boosting the 52-year-old’s popularity but Congress still faces an uphill battle against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that appears poised to sweep the general election due next year.

“I didn’t do the Yatra for myself or Congress,” said Gandhi, who swapped the t-shirt that he had worn for the majority of the march for a woollen Kashmiri gown to ward off the cold. “The aim is to stand against an ideology that wants to destroy the foundation of the country,” he said, referring to the BJP.

Leaders from half a dozen opposition parties attended the rally, the largest opposition gathering in the held valley that Modi’s government reorganised into two federally administered territories in August 2019.

“All secular parties must come together to liberate the country from BJP,” D. Raja, General Secretary of the Communist Party of India, said at the rally. Several other opposition leaders failed to make it to the rally because flights into Srinagar’s airport were cancelled due to the heavy snow.

The Nehru-Gandhi dynasty has controlled the Congress party for decades but has also overseen its recent decline. Rahul Gandhi resigned as Congress president after the last election.Sameer Ahmad, 26 and without a job, said he travelled from Pulwama, around 30 km away, to attend the rally, at times trudging through snow.

Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2023