Congress Party in Punjab is going the AAP way. Just about six months before the Assembly polls in Punjab, PCC chief Capt Amarinder has decided to come face to face with the voters, marking a clear cut departure from his earlier “royal style of campaigning”.
As a part of the newly conceived mega outreach programme ‘Halke Vich Captain’ Captain Amarinder Singh will directly interact with round 5 lakh people, giving a full day to all 117 constituencies in the State.
‘Halke Vich Captain’ will begin on June 19, from Jalalabad, the constituency of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal. The party on Saturday launched, new slogan ‘Chahunda Hai Punjab, Captain Di Sarkar’ before starting the mega outreach programme.
The programme is aimed at reaching out each and every household of the State. Captain Amarinder will chart out the agenda for the first 100 days of his Government, taking inputs from the people directly.
Captain will have the first hand information of the concerns of the people of Punjab, engaging various stakeholders — general public, media, party workers etc in the programme. He will personally tell people about his plans of governance and assure them to come out with resolutions to the problems.
The program includes some novel ideas like lokan da Darbar, in which grievance forums will be organised and Captain Amarinder Singh will converse with the aggrieved people. Task forces will be set up to address the noted issues in the first 100 days after coming to power.
Captain will engage locally renowned individuals like Sarpanches, Professors, Doctors, Businessmen, Farmers, and advocates etc. to get a comprehensive understanding of area specific issues. The local media persons will also get the personal attention of the PCC chief. Around 5000 such influencers are to be tapped during the program.
Besides, mass contact program with the general public, the program is also aimed at boosting the morale of party workers, and Captain Amarinder will hold interactive sessions local party workers, supporters, office bearers, and members of the frontal organisations of the party. It is expected that Captain will interact with around 1 lac party workers in all the constituencies.
Political observers believe that Captain Amarinder is trying to break free of his image of Maharaja, who remains away from the people, by projecting himself ‘to be one of them.’