Since its launch on October 3, the Satyagraha portal has received over 36,000 registrations by individuals and groups from all across the country. In the wake of protests by Gen Z and Gen Alpha, education access remains the leading subject with over 6,100 complaints, closely followed by corruption with over 5,800 registrations nationwide. Moreover, in 21 states and Union Territories (UTs), corruption remains the reason for most agitations.
Even though the party is said to have launched the portal with the prime objective of organising and amplifying smaller, locally charged protests, political analysts say that it may help in framing election manifestoes for the seven states going to polls in 2027. Corruption emerges as the biggest reason for protests in five of those — Punjab, Goa, Manipur, Uttarakhand, and Gujarat. In six of them, either education or corruption is the biggest issue, barring Goa, where environmental justice is the second biggest concern after corruption.
The renewed concerns around education emerged against the backdrop of the July protests at Jantar Mantar against the NEET paper leak, Jharkhand student protest, Gandhi’s Chhatron ki Goonj and Cockroach Janta Party’s School Thik Karo campaign.
“We want to look at substantial issues and how they are taking shape locally. For example, a pothole may not get recorded but children not being able to reach school due to infrastructural challenges may be recorded as an education access complaint in the particular area,” the source adds.
The platform has 13 broad issues and an ‘other’ option under which people can lodge their grievances. This includes corruption, education, land rights, healthcare, caste-based discrimination, vote chori, unemployment, religious discrimination among other categories. Ethanol blending has received the least number of complaints.
All four states ruled by Congress have different issues emerging as the top-most grievance. Access to education in Himachal Pradesh, corruption in Kerala, healthcare in Karnataka and caste-based discrimination in Telangana, the only state to have this as its leading crisis.
In total, over 20 states and UTs have registered caste-based discrimination among their top-five problems, most of them recording it as the third biggest issue after corruption and education. Moreover, the all-India average of the number of grievances related to caste-based discrimination (2,621) is almost five times higher than religion-based discrimination (441).
Amid the ongoing SIR protests, 1,221 complaints have been received for vote chori. Maharashtra has recorded 155 cases and the issue is ranked second in Kerala (95) and fifth in West Bengal (105). Rajasthan, Karnataka, and Bihar have seen 74, 67, and 105 complaints on the issue, respectively.
On how the party plans to approach the data, the source said the LoP will write letters to concerned authorities, Parliament and chief ministers, especially of Congress-ruled states.
“There is a team already tracking the updates from the portal. We will form state-wise committees with the help of sewa dals and war rooms. Even LoP visits will be planned based on the data collected from the portal,” they added.
North-eastern states have raised concerns about land rights, making it one of the top five issues in six of eight states. Land rights is also the biggest concern in Ladakh, Lakshadweep and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. North-eastern states have also shown healthcare and livelihood concerns, highlighting the basic accessibility issues in the region.
While the Congress aims to channel the grievances into a larger movement, the responses recorded on the portal have started to dwindle. On its launch date on October 3, the portal recorded 10,000 complaints in the first nine hours. By October 10, this rose to 34,000, jumping nearly 24,000 in seven days. But between October 10 and 17, the complaints rose by around 2,500, with 36,000 registrations.
“There have been some delays in the operations due to the ongoing anti-CEC protests. We should be able to get this fully started in a month,” the source said.
Political analyst Yogendra Yadav said it will be important for the Congress to back the data.
