Umesh Kumar Ray 
Patna: After a long time, the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation is organising a statewide padayatra (walk) ‘Badlo Bihar Nyay Yatra’ to strengthen the party base in Bihar and energise its workers in view of the November by-polls on four seats and the Bihar assembly elections that will be held in October 2025
The 10-day long yatra started on October 16 and will culminate into a public meeting on October 27 in Patna.
CPI (ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya is leading the yatra in the districts of Magadh region where the party has a strong base. The yatra started from Nawada district under his leadership.
Parallel yatras are also being conducted in other districts, which are being led by local leaders, MLAs and MPs of the party.
One party leader said, “Earlier we organised such yatras at a very small scale. It is the first time after a long period that the party is organising a pan-Bihar yatra.”
“We are getting a warm response from the people. They are rushing to us with their issues,” Lekha Adavi, CPI(ML)- Liberation leader, who is accompanying the yatra, said.
“They feel that we are raising their issues. Many JEEViKA didis, ASHA workers and mid day meal workers are coming to us and participating in the yatra,” she added.
CPI (ML)- Liberation padyatra. Photo: by arrangement.
Focus of the yatra
The CPI (ML)-Liberation leaders are focusing on seven key issues during this yatra that are significantly impacting the people of Bihar.
These include the Rs 2 lakh financial assistance promised to the people by the incumbents; five decimal housing land and permanent houses to the poor; end of atrocities against Dalits, poor, women and minorities; a stay on the ongoing land survey, end the compulsion to install smart meteres, halving electricity rates and 200 units of free electricity to the poor; immediate relief for flood victims.
The party is also demanding Rs 50,000 per acre as compensation to farmers whose crops were damaged and minimum wages for more than 10 lakh scheme workers, according to the new wage rate announced by the Union government, among other demands.
Bhattacharya said, “Bihar has to be changed. We want a new Bihar. If we want development, justice, employment in the state then we have to ensure that any conspiracy to divide the poor is shattered.
Another party leader said, “During the yatra, we are meeting people from the Dalit community and other people against whom violence has taken place.”
The party’s yatra in Nawada started from Krishnanagar, where three dozen houses of people from scheduled caste communities (Musahars and Chamars) were set on fire on September 18.
“Krishna Nagar is no exception. Lakhs of poor landless families of Bihar are still living amidst this insecurity and injustice. With the resolve to eradicate this injustice, the Badlo Bihar Nyay Yatra is starting from Nawada,” Bhattacharya said after meeting the people in Krishna Nagar.
He added, “Nitishji says that land surveys will end land disputes but the opposite is happening. Land survey is a conspiracy to evict the landless. That is why we have come to demand a ban on land surveys until the landless people get land ownership documents.”
CPI (ML)- Liberation padyatra. Photo: by arrangement.
Key to assembly elections in 2025
This yatra is considered important in view of the Bihar assembly elections to be held next year. After the exceptional performance in the last assembly elections and this year’s Lok Sabha elections, the party’s morale is high and the party leadership feels that its performance can be improved by working hard on the ground.
In the 2020 assembly elections, the party had won 12 of the 19 seats it had contested, garnering 4% of votes cast.
In the Lok Sabha elections held this year, the party won two seats – Karakat and Arrah – out of the three seats it contested. The party’s victory in the Lok Sabha elections was a big achievement because the party had not won from Bihar since 1989.
Experts believe that through this yatra, the party wants to be able to claim to more seats in the upcoming assembly elections.
“It is good that the party is holding such a yatras. It will energise party workers as well as supporters. It will also give the party leadership an idea about the issues common people are facing. But, this should be a regular exercise and not targeted at elections only,” political analyst Mahendra Suman said.
“Apart from this, the party should think about building strong mass movements at the local level. The party used to lead such mass movements till the 90s but after that they didn’t organise such movements,” he added.
Other parties
It is not that CPI(ML) – Liberation is the only party who is organising a padyatra. Other parties too are busy with meetings and rallies.
Janata Dal (United) started a Samaagam Yatra on September 27 which will end in January 2025 in Nalanda, home district to Nitish Kumar and party’s national general secretary Manish Verma.
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and former deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav has been organising Karyakarta Samvad Yatra since September 10.
On the other hand, Vikas-sheel Insan Party (VIP) chief Mukesh Sahani has started the Nishad Sankalp Yatra to press various demands of the fishing community.
He said that the party will fight upcoming assembly polls with full vigour and will work for the reservation of Nishads.
Former poll strategist Prashant Kishor, who launched his own Jan Suraaj Party on October 2 this year, has been on yatra since 2022.
While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has officially not initiated any such yatra, senior BJP leader and Union minister Giriraj Singh is organising a Hindu Swabhiman Yatra in Kishanganj, Katihar, Araria and other districts where there is a substantial muslim population.
JD(U) spokesperson Rajiv Ranjan Prasad said, “There is no need for such a yatra as Hindus and Muslims are not unsafe here. All are living with harmony. [If everyone is] happy then what is the need of this yatra?”
However, state minister and BJP leader Dilip Jaiswal said, “BJP has nothing to do with this yatra, but the party will not stop BJP workers if they participate in it.”
The question now is whether these yatras will translate into votes for the political parties.
Former professor at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Pushpendra says, “There had been political significance of yatras. In the past, Chandra Shekhar, YSR Reddy, Jagan Mohan Reddy, Lal Krishna Advani and other leaders had held padyatra and they became big political figures. Recently, Rahul Gandhi did the yatra which changed his image in public. But, for a big impact, you have to do it sincerely. I am not seeing sincereness in current yatras in Bihar except that of CPI(ML)-Liberation.”