The Central leadership of the Congress on Saturday set a time frame of ten days for the State leaders to decide upon the alliances if any or their plans to go solo in their respective States in the forthcoming general elections. Congress chief Rahul Gandhi in a meeting with State Congress Chiefs and the Congress Legislative Party leaders also asked the leaders concerned to finalise the list of candidates for the forthcoming Assembly and Lok Sabha polls by the end of February.
Besides, the meeting also chalked out detailed strategy for the newly appointed Congress general secretary in-charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s four day visit to State from Monday onwards. The party in UP is seeing the visit as the virtual launch of the Congress campaign in the State, ahead of the coming Lok Sabha elections.
Presiding over the meeting at the Congress War Room at Rakab Ganj Road in national Capital, Rahul asked the party leaders to give priority on booth management. The Congress chief had also conducted a meeting of the General Secretaries on Thursday aimed at focusing on Lok Sabha poll strategy which was also attended by Priyanka.
A PCC leader said the Congress president underscored the need for better booth management. He also spoke about proper publicity of the candidates contesting the elections in their area and desired to know from the party leaders about the State-wise assessment for Assembly and Lok Sabha polls at earliest.
Regarding the candidate selection and finalisation, Rahul guided the leaders to take broader steps to make them more inclusive and to ensure the participation of maximum party stakeholders and workers. He also instructed to complete the candidate selection process as soon as possible.
The Congress chief also instructed the PCC presidents and CLP leaders to expose anti-farmers, anti-youth, anti-women and anti-people policies of the Modi Government.
He stressed on highlighting in the public campaign of the party the burning issues of unemployment, farmers distress, sabotage of constitutional bodies, misuse of the institutions and investigative agencies, in the mass campaign and social media.
He also opined that the dictatorship style of Governance of Modi Government should be highlighted in the campaign. Furthermore, the Congress chief emphasised that the pro-people policies proposed by Congress like the Minimum Income Guarantee programme should be taken to the people across the country.
“All State PCC Presidents and CLP leaders were asked to focus on State oriented major issues and to suggest them to the AICC Manifesto committee,” said an AICC source.
Further preparations underway to accord a grand welcome to Rahul and Priyanka in Lucknow on Monday was also reviewed. They will be welcomed by party workers and leaders at nearly 37 points on the 10 km-route from the airport to the Nehru Bhawan Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) headquarters.
This will Priyanka’s maiden visit to Uttar Pradesh after she formally entered politics last month and she will be joined by another general secretary in-charge for western Uttar Pradesh Jyotiraditya Scindia. Priyanka has responsibilities of 42 of the 80 Lok Sabha constituencies in the crucial State while remaining in bags of Scindia.
Priyanka is scheduled to meet senior leaders and office bearers of the party constituency-wise during her visit till February 14. Lists of leaders, including former MPs, MLAs and other people’s representatives, have been sought from the district unit presidents. Each constituency is being allotted a different time to meet the senior leadership, during which all issues related to their areas will be discussed in detail.