What has Rahul gained from yatra?

Has Congress leader Rahul Gandhi achieved anything with his Bharat Jodo yatra that ended this week? Will it pay any political dividend to him or his party in the coming months? Has he succeeded in his image makeover? Has he been able to unite the Opposition parties against the BJP? There are many such questions after Rahul ended his Yatra on January 30, walking 3,500 km and passing through 12 states in five months.

Undoubtedly, undertaking a Kanyakumari to Kashmir yatra was a brilliant idea to connect with the public, get to know the issues first-hand, and achieve an image makeover.

Many leaders like Chandrashekhar and L K Advani had undertaken such yatras earlier for political purposes.

Rahul's strategists initially suggested a less strenuous bus tour. But he chose to undergo hardship, like walking thousands of kilometers with blisters on his feet and knee pain, sleeping in a caravan, and roughing it out. He even skipped addressing rallies in Himachal Pradesh last November as he was preoccupied with the yatra.

Has the yatra benefitted Rahul? He claims it was fulfilling. "I've learnt a lot, met lakhs of people, spoken to them. I don't have words to describe it. The goal of the yatra was to unite India. It was against hate and violence.

This has been the deepest and most beautiful experience of my life". He further claimed that the yatra had opened "shops of love in a market of hate" (nafrat ke bazaar main mohabbat ki dukaan).