On November 27 last year, the Rajasthan BJP kicked off its Jan Aakrosh Abhiyan with the objective to publicly “expose” the “all-round failures” of the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government, which marked its fourth anniversary in December.

Under this campaign, the party has been taking out Jan Aakrosh Yatra across the state in a bid to reach out to people in all 200 Assembly constituencies, down to the village level.

As the Yatra involving the state BJP leaders and workers enters its last leg, senior party leaders maintain that it has been a “huge success”. At some places, however, the participating BJP leaders had to face public ire that dented the saffron party’s exercise.

“The Jan Aakrosh Yatra has been historic and unprecedented. The youth and farmers are so angry with the Gehlot government that they are in the mood of uprooting this government in such a way that the Congress won’t even dream of coming to power for twenty years,” Rajya Sabha MP and Rajasthan BJP in-charge Arun Singh said.

Singh said the Yatra has covered a distance of more than 1 lakh kilometres across Rajasthan, during which over 5,000 “nukkad sabhas (street-corner meetings)” and rallies were held, in which local party MLAs and MPs also participated.

“We have connected to 1.2 crore people and 92 lakh letters have been sent (to them). The way the public responded to the Yatra, I can say that the exit of the Gehlot government has been decided through it,” Singh claimed.

At times, the Yatra encountered some hurdles though. In December, a video from one of its events in Jaipur went viral on social media, where BJP leader Mohanlal Gupta was seen forcibly snatching the microphone from another BJP leader Manish Pareek as he was going to speak. Gupta then went on to address the gathering himself.

In another video, BJP MLA from Makrana, Ruparam Murawatiya, was seen surrounded by angry villagers during the Yatra. As the locals confronted him about pending works, Murawatiya said, “If I don’t pass your test, don’t give me votes.”

Earlier this month a video circulated on social media purportedly showing a woman dancing on a stage set up for the Yatra in Alwar district. While the Alwar BJP leaders blamed the Congress for this incident, state BJP president Satish Poonia sought an explanation from the district unit leaders, calling it an attempt to “tarnish” the party’s image that he described as a “matter of serious indiscipline”.

The Yatra has also been hit by a political controversy as former chief minister Vasundhara Raje has been conspicuous by her absence in the campaign since December 1, when she attended the Yatra’s launch in Jaipur by BJP national president JP Nadda.

A slew of top state and central BJP leaders – including Raje’s known rivals, Poonia and Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, and other CM aspirants like Leader of Opposition (LoP) Gulab Chand Kataria and Deputy LoP Rajendra Rathore – took part in the Yatra, addressing many of its rallies.

Eyebrows have been raised in BJP circles over Raje’s absence from the Yatra, which has again turned the focus on factionalism and infighting within the party. There has been a protracted tussle between Raje and Poonia who led the Yatra from the front across the state.

In the midst of the Yatra in December, the BJP lost the Sardarshahar by-election to the Congress, which accused the saffron party leaders of failing to mobilise crowds for it.

“The Jan Aakrosh is against Modi ji, against you, not against Congress. You don’t call it a Yatra. You call this a Yatra when lakhs of people walk with Rahul Gandhi ji. You won’t find five people sitting (at the Jan Aakrosh Yatra). Why are you taking out the janaza (funeral march) of the BJP?” state Congress president Govind Singh Dotasra alleged.

State BJP’s chief spokesperson and Chomu MLA, Ramlal Sharma, however, said: “The Yatra has received a historic response. As for the two-three incidents, naturally, the public has expectations from politicians in a democracy. At present, since we are not in power, and everyone knows the dismal functioning of the Congress government, all of their expectations are not fulfilled. In all places, the public doesn’t understand this and confronts the public representatives about the work done. The anger of the public is natural. We accept it and will address it.”

On Raje’s absence from the Yatra, Sharma said she could not participate in most of its events due to some illness of a family member but virtually addressed some rallies near her stronghold in the Hadoti region.