NEW DELHI: The
Congress has made an early start for assembly elections slated for four major bipolar states this year. Buoyed by the results of Gujarat election, where it gave a tough fight to the ruling
BJP, the party has identified different stakeholders — farmers, agricultural workers, non-resident Indians, domestic workers, students, traders and unorganised workers – and begun grassroots work to identify their problems and engage with them directly.
Party members privy to the preparations told ET that the Congress has started work through its various cells – including All India Unorganised Workers Congress, All India Fishermen Congress, All India Professionals Congress, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes cells, revamped students wing – in the election-bound states of
Karnataka, Chhattisgarh,
Madhya Pradesh and
Rajasthan.
They said that these cells spent much of the second half of 2017 in getting their organisational setup in place in the poll-bound states and that now the cells are working on different stakeholders entrusted to them.
All India Unorganised Workers Congress chairman Arbind Singh said: “We have prioritised work in the poll-bound states. We have identified different stakeholders we need to reach across. Unorganised workers like domestic workers who are brought from tribal belts of MP and Chhattisgarh is one such segment.”
Singh’s Congress cell is already connecting with these workers to hammer out a domestic workers rights legislation. “The first step was getting organisational setup in place in the states, which has been done. Then was the membership drive. The moment we give out identity cards to these workers, we build a connect with them,” he said.
With agricultural distress being a major factor in rural areas, especially in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, the Congress is planning major agitations across the states. In Rajasthan, Congress state unit chief Sachin Pilot has already wrapped up a farmers’ march in Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje’s home turf. With Gujarat’s Saurashtra belt reflecting agricultural distress and low minimum support price (MSP) as major election issues in turning the fortunes of the BJP, the Congress plans to go the extra mile in connecting with farmers and agricultural workers.
The Congress is in the process of identifying major issues affecting students and youth. Similar exercises were conducted last year in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat through the party’s revamped units. Since 2017, the party has been engaging with students at a different level. A senior Congress leader said, “You can see the difference in the results of students’ union elections. This clearly shows that our strategy of advance planning and a proactive campaign through WhatsApp and social networking websites has a direct connect with students.”
Although the Congress has yet to take a leadership call in Madhya Pradesh, it has begun the spadework in this regard in all the states. All India Congress Committee in-charge of Chhattisgarh, PL Punia, said: “Congress lost Chhattisgarh by a very narrow margin. We know that grassroots work would see us through. We have already begun work in constituencies which we lost with less than 5,000 votes and those between 5,000 and 10,000 votes.”
