Civil society groups see yatra as a ‘success’, plan ‘grassroots movement’ against BJP-RSS | India News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Viewing the just-concluded Bharat Jodo Yatra as a “success”, civil society groups are set to band together to launch a year-long “grassroots movement” to complement the political fight against the RSS-BJP combine in the 2024 elections. The key strand of the “abhiyan” will be ensuring partnership with, and co-option of, all the scattered protests on jobs, land acquisition and economy, to create an army of volunteers for campaign, and to erect a communications network to counter the ruling camp.
The “abhiyan” strategists say the strength of the voluntary organisations likely to join the proposed platform will go beyond those who aligned with the Kanyakumari-Kashmir march on the request of Rahul Gandhi. The walkathon which drew a big response through its route across 12 states over four months managed to connect with many more groups active on the ground who were not part of the original civil society bloc convened by Yogendra Yadav, and they will now be part of the new endeavour, sources said.
To ensure coordination between civil society and the political class, invitations have been sent to like-minded political parties for a “national convention” to be held in the capital on Monday. Sources said, the political parties to join the convention are Congress, NCP, RJD, CPI, DMK, JDU, CPM and RLD, while SP too has been invited. Rahul Gandhi and Digvijaya Singh, the two brains behind the Bharat Jodo Yatra, are likely to be part of the convention.
Sources said while the parties will be devising their plans to carry forward the mood generated by Yatra, the civil society is mulling a multi-pronged strategy for grassroots mobilisation.