Congress banking on youth in 250 Seats

(This article was originally published by The Economic Times on 19/02/2019.)
New Delhi: Ahead of parliamentary elections, Congress is planning to target the youth aged between 18 and 35 years with focused programmes right down to the panchayat level including interaction with Congress veterans, pledges to root out BJP and even freewheeling dialogues with party president Rahul Gandhi.

About 250 Lok Sabha constituencies have been identified, mostly in non-Congress-ruled states, where the party would make a concerted effort to connect with young voters. The initiative would begin in Haryana, Gujarat, Odisha, Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The Congress has identified constituencies where it finished a close second in the last two parliamentary elections.

The party will conduct a ‘Chalo Panchayat’ programme and propagate messages on current issues including Rafale aircraft deal, demonetisation, goods and services tax, unemployment and rising prices. It would also initiate ‘Haath Uthaao’ campaign where it would make the youth take a pledge to root out BJP. A senior Congress functionary told ET: “This was done at a very small level in the run-up to Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh assembly elections. We got a great response. Now the ‘Haath Uthaao’ initiative would be a proper programme for us.”

Though the Congress is planning to target 250 Lok Sabha constituencies, it is realistically looking at 100. “This is a very meticulous programme, so we would be very happy if we reach 100 constituencies. We are targeting constituencies which are internally being called ‘high returns’ segments,” a senior Congress functionary said. The party is unlikely to roll out the programme in Uttar Pradesh. “It does not have the kind of returns we would get in other states with the same efforts,” another senior Congress leader said.