Political Mobilization and Election Outcomes: Evidence from Bharat Jodo Yatra

This paper estimates the association between Bharat Jodo Yatra (BJY), a campaign run bythe Indian National Congress leader Rahul Gandhi across India during 2022 and 2023, andelection outcomes in the Indian general elections of 2024. Using the data from the ElectionCommission of India (ECI), we have four main findings to report. First, in the 2024 generalelections, the Indian National Congress’ vote share for constituencies covered by the BJYwas higher by roughly six percentage points than other constituencies. Second, INC’s voteshare went up by approximately three percentage points between 2019 and 2024. Third, wedo not find evidence that the BJP (the ruling party and the INC’s main opponent) lost voteshare between the two elections. Fourth, the Yatra did not lead to a significant increase inCongress party’s probability of winning a seat.