Sonia Gandhi, Rahul to be party’s star campaigners
GURUGRAM: The Haryana Congress has decided to bring in national-level leaders, including party’s interim president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, to campaign intensively for the state assembly elections scheduled on October 21. The campaign committee of state Congress has also decided to rope in chief ministers of party-ruled states for the election campaign.
The party will also form district-level campaign committees to coordinate ground level work, and the focus would be to take up local issues that affect the masses. This was decided in a meeting of the campaign committee on Wednesday.
Captain (retd) Ajay Yadav, who heads the campaign committee, said that a strategy is being formulated to ensure the party is able to highlight the failures of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and offer itself as a credible option in the assembly polls. “We will get our top leaders and campaigners to challenge the BJP and give it a solid fight. All measures to counter the ruling party are being considered,” he said, while refusing to share further details.
As far as top campaigners are concerned, apart from Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, the Congress will put on board Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot, Sachin Pilot, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Raj Babbar, Naghma and other prominent faces to launch an election blitzkrieg to counter the BJP’S slogan of ‘abki bar 75
CONGRESS WILL PUT ON BOARD RAJASTHAN CM ASHOK GEHLOT, SACHIN PILOT, JYOTIRADITYA SCINDIA, RAJ BABBAR, NAGHMA AND OTHER PROMINENT FACES
par’, said party leaders. The party will also set up 25-member district campaign committees in all districts, which will take out the party message to the voters.
A Congress insider said that the party has also decided to use social media on a wider scale to challenge the saffron party. The campaign committee also decided that the party would avoid raising issues that it feels are being used by the saffron party. “It has been decided to focus on local issues like rising unemployment, farm distress, job losses, economic slowdown, inflation, scholarship scam, and recent problems faced by job aspirants. Issues like pollution, poor sanitation and lack of housing would be taken up in a big way,” a senior party leader, who was present in the meeting, said.
Jawahar Yadav, state BJP spokesperson, said that entry of Rahul Gandhi or presence of former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda will not affect the BJP campaign as both have proved ineffective in the past. “The current situation of the Congress in Haryana is due to the actions of former CM. It will not impact the BJP in any way.”