It is like a mini village that springs up at a new camp site every day, and comes alive every night, on about 60 truck-mounted container vans turned into air-conditioned bedrooms. Rahul Gandhi’s biggest outreach programme of his political career, and the Congress’s five-month gambit to turn around its fortunes, rests on these.

The containers are parked in colour-coded zones, depending on the number of beds they have. Apart from ones the 120-odd partymen walking alongside Rahul, from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, are staying in, there is a container turned into a mini-conference hall.

The ones in the yellow zone, for example, have one bed each, a couch and attached bathrooms. Rahul stays in one of these, Container No. 1.

His security personnel are in the one marked No. 2.

The blue zone containers have two beds each, with a washroom. The red and orange zone containers house up to four people, without a washroom. The pink zone is for the women yatris, with four beds — lower and upper — and attached bathrooms. The beds come with storage spaces.

The containers turned into common toilets are marked ‘T’. In total, there are seven toilets — five for men and two for women. Every camp site also has a designated common dining area.

As the Yatra began its Day 2 on Friday, the trucks with the containers rolled off a Nagercoil ground. They will park for the night at the next halt, preferably a school or college ground.

There are housekeeping teams to maintain the vans, with the bedding and linen to be changed every morning, once the yatris are off walking for the day. One doctor and two attendants with basic first aid are travelling with the cavalcade.

AICC general secretary in-charge of organisation K C Venugopal and AICC secretary Vamshi Chand Reddy are sharing Container No. 3, while No. 4 has Rahul’s staff Alankar Sawai and K B Byju. AICC general secretary in-charge of Communication Jairam Ramesh is in Container No. 15, in the blue zone.

Only vegetarian food is being served to the yatris, prepared by an external agency, which procures the materials locally, with help from the local District Congress. At a time, a meal is prepared for 300 people, including the yatris and those joining them at places.

The menu factors in the taste of the region; with the breakfast in Nagercoil on Friday, for example, dosa idli, upma, poha, sambar and chutney. The night menu is different types of rice with curries. Delhi leader Yasmeen Kidwai is in-charge of the food, with different committees such as the food committee and maintenance and housekeeping committee sharing the responsibilities.

An agency is looking after provision of fuel and water, as well as electricians and plumbers to keep things running.

There are few do’s and don’ts, mentioned in notices tagged onto the vans. The consumption of liquor and tobacco as well as smoking is completely prohibited at the campsite. Consumption of food inside the vans is also discouraged. The yatris are instructed to drop their laundry at a specified location, to be received washed and ironed the third day.

But even at this yatra, with the highest level of security given Rahul’s protectee status, one can’t be too careful. One notice board says “management or the organisation team is not responsible for loss of any personal items / valuables.”

Twitter paid whistle-blower $7 million for silence, says Musk’s lawyer

Manoj C.GManoj C G is an Associate Editor. He writes on politics. He has worked... read more