Congress to bank on ‘one booth, 10 youths’ strategy

Mumbai: Taking a leaf out of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) much-hyped panna pramukh concept, the Maharashtra Congress will be running ‘one booth, 10 youths’ campaign in all 288 Assembly constituencies.

State Congress chief Ashok Chavan on Wednesday held a meeting with the party’s coordinators for all constituencies. “The party has been working on this concept for some time. The organisation at the ground level has been activated to face the polls with full force. The booth committees have been asked to reach out to every single voter,” Mr. Chavan said.

Each booth committee will have 10 activists. They will be tasked with contacting every voter from the booth, convey the party message, hand in the manifesto, and finally ensure that the voters exercise their franchise.

With every Assembly seat having at least 300 booths, the party is expected to form a network of 8.64 lakh activists across the state.

“This will be the battle of paid BJP workers versus the ideologically-charged Congress activists. At a time when the BJP is using the might of money, power, and the government administration to win every election with paid workers at the booth level, each ideologically-charged Congress worker is ready to fight it,” Mr. Chavan said.

Sources in the Congress said 70% booth committees have been set up, and the rest will be formed soon.