930 km, 70 days: As Digvijaya Singh begins Ayodhya yatra, what is his game plan

Vedic chants rose above the sound of devotional songs as saffron-clad sadhus marched through the ancient city of Ujjain. Religious slogans filled the air as devotees gathered for rituals involving the construction and worship of hundreds of clay Shiva lingams. Bhajans and aarti set the tone for a journey led not by a BJP leader, but by Congress veteran and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh.

Singh, 79, launched his Satya Sanatan Swabhiman Yatra last week amid an elaborate display of religious fervour, insisting that the 930-km padayatra was not a political exercise. However the yatra’s route and a political context suggest otherwise.

Beginning in the BJP stronghold of Ujjain, the nearly 70-day-long yatra will pass through Madhya Pradesh and culminate in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya, home to the Ram temple.

In MP, the route runs through Ujjain, Tarana, Shajapur, Sarangpur, Rajgarh, Chachoura, Ashoknagar and Chanderi before reaching Orchha. Chanderi and Ashoknagar fall within the wider Guna-Shivpuri belt linked to Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, who won the Guna Lok Sabha seat in 2024. Orchha, home to the Ram Raja temple, is another significant religious stop before Singh’s foot march enters UP.

The yatra’s UP leg will take Singh through areas where the Congress has struggled to sustain an independent organisational presence. It is scheduled to pass through parts of Bundelkhand before moving towards Kanpur Dehat, Lucknow Dehat and Barabanki, and finally reaching Ayodhya.

Temple donation ‘theft’ row

Singh’s demand for an inquiry into alleged irregularities in donations collected for the Ayodhya Ram temple has put the BJP on the defensive, signalling that the senior Congress leader intends to take the fight to the ruling BJP on an issue it has long claimed as its own.

“He (Digvijaya Singh) has found a major issue in the alleged irregularities in donations collected for the Ram temple. Until now, the Congress had remained defensive on Hindutva. But for the first time, Singh has gone on the offensive,” a senior Congress functionary said.

The issue could also resonate with religious leaders who feel that the BJP has not given them the attention they believe they deserve, the functionary added.

The yatra’s organisers claim that it has got the support of several religious leaders, including Jyotish Peeth Shankaracharya Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati and Dwarka-Sharda Peeth Shankaracharya Swami Sadanand Saraswati.

The yatra could also help the Congress reach voters who identify with Hindu religious traditions but are dissatisfied with aspects of the BJP’s politics, the functionary added.

“The BJP and the Congress are engaged in a particular kind of political contest. One aspect of this is the attempt to draw young people towards politics through student politics. Another is the question of how to bring back a substantial section of voters who had drifted away from the BJP over the issue of Hindutva. I believe this yatra will also seek to address that question.”

The BJP was however quick to dismiss the yatra while questioning Singh’s religious credentials.

MP minister Vishwas Sarang accused Singh of “repeatedly insulting Hindus, devotees and religious leaders”, while BJP MLA Rameshwar Sharma alleged that his march was intended to “defame Sanatan Dharma and please Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi”.

Digvijaya’s MP roadmap

Singh’s march is also being seen against the backdrop of the organisational crisis that gripped the Congress following its defeat in the MP Assembly elections in December 2023. He had been then tasked with touring 66 constituencies that the party had failed to win in the previous three elections. The aim was to reconnect with workers, identify local grievances and strengthen the organisation in BJP strongholds. But the exercise came too late to address weaknesses that had accumulated over several electoral cycles.

This time, Singh has embarked on the exercise more than two years before the next Assembly elections slated for 2028.

In 2023, the Congress won 66 of the state’s 230 seats as against the BJP’s 163.

In Ujjain, the home constituency of Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, Singh has now also sought to project an image of a united Congress despite the factionalism that has dogged the party for several years.

“The Congress in Ujjain had always appeared divided. But every Congress worker came together and we also received overwhelming support from several social activists who had no association with any party,” he said.

A Congress worker pointed out that Singh has continued to have networks across the constituencies in MP despite having been out of office for many years. The yatra could help revive an organisation weakened by successive electoral defeats,

the Congress worker said, adding that in UP it could give the party greater visibility in constituencies where its prospects are closely tied to its alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP).

UP polls ahead

Singh’s march comes at a critical juncture for the Congress. In UP, where it remains a junior partner of the SP, the party’s challenge is to regain a political and organisational foothold ahead of the Assembly elections due in February 2027.

A senior Congress leader said the march could help reactivate dormant party workers, particularly in UP. “In UP, the Congress is currently playing the role of the junior partner. But when 79-year-old Singh passes through constituencies that are SP’s strongholds, the dormant Congress workers could become active again. This could put our party in a stronger position to bargain with the SP for a larger share of seats,” the leader said.

‘Ideological battle’

Ahead of the 2023 MP elections, another Congress veteran and ex-CM Kamal Nath was seen to have played “soft Hindutva” politics, hoping to counter the BJP’s narrative.

Singh has however framed his yatra as an ideological confrontation with the BJP and the RSS. “The Indian Constitution upholds respect for all religions. Every individual has the right to practise their own religion. Taking offence at this, the RSS has repeatedly burned our Constitution. It has also burned our national flag,” he alleged. “This is a battle of ideologies — the same ideological battle in which Nathuram Godse assassinated Mahatma Gandhi… And this is the battle we continue to fight today against the RSS,VHP and Bajrang Dal. We will continue this fight until our last breath,” he said.

Narmada yatra

Singh’s earlier Narmada Parikrama offers a precedent for his use of long-distance religious journey. He began the nearly 3,300-km Narmada Parikrama on September 30, 2017, and completed it on April 9, 2018.

The journey took him along the banks of the river through MP and parts of Gujarat. Singh, at the time, described it as a religious and spiritual exercise rather than a political campaign.

The Congress subsequently won 114 seats in the 2018 MP elections, emerging as the single-largest party and forming a government with the support of smaller parties and Independents. The BJP won 109 seats. However, the Kamal Nath-led government fell in March 2020 after Scindia switched to the BJP with 22 rebel Congress MLAs.