Cong takes calendar route to reach out to people
LUCKNOW : The Congress, in a novel way to reach out to the people of Uttar Pradesh, has put a picture of party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra with women family members of victims of Umbha (Sonbhadra) massacre on the first page of a calendar that will be distributed among the people from as early as Friday.
Another picture in the calendar shows her protecting Congress workers from police lathicharge when they wanted to go to Hathras to meet the family of gang rape victim there.
She has also been shown wiping tears of a minor girl of a victim’s family in Azamgarh during anti-CAA and NRC protests.
Priyanka’s photos from her visits to Lucknow, Amethi, Rae Bareli, Varanasi, Ujjain, Haryana and Jharkhand have also been used in the calendar. A photo showing her having food in the picturesque backdrop of fields during poll campaign has been carried on another page.
A brief caption provides a perfect commentary on the pictures. For example a small caption with one of the pictures tells a lot about how Priyanka was able to meet the family of Hathras rape victim despite obstructions caused by the police.
The UP Congress proposes to distribute the calendar in all villages and cities.
“AICC has sent 10 lakh such calendars to the party in the state. Our leaders and party men are reaching out to the people during the Sangthan Srajan campaign. We propose to begin to distribute the calendars during this campaign. Hopefully, west UP districts will begin the distribution on Friday,” said UP Congress organisation secretary Anil Yadav.
The UP Congress had launched the campaign January 3 to 25 campaign to build and strengthen the party organization at the grassroots level. About 80 to 100 senior leaders, including AICC secretaries and UPCC chief Ajay Kumar Lallu, are camping in different districts to set up nyay panchjayat-level units in nearly all the 8,000 nyay panchayats and ward level units in all the towns.
A list of holidays/special days has been provided on every page of the calendar to mark festivals and birth anniversaries/death anniversaries of important persons/leaders. “We have given a list of special days in a month to let the people know why a day is important. Besides reminding the people about Priyankaji’s visits, this calendar also mentions social reformers/leaders associated with the social justice moments or have done other important work,” said Yadav.
“Having Priyanka’s pictures on the calendar may be a good move of the Congress to reach out to the people of Uttar Pradesh. But the Congress needs to resolve the leadership issue. The party, obviously, has the 2022 assembly elections in mind. It has a crisis of leadership. The people will like to know who will head the Congress. What will be the role of Priyanka. Will she be projected as a chief ministerial candidate in the elections? The Congress has to find answers to such questions on top of the people’s mind as the party reaches out to them,” said SK Dwivedi, former head of department political science, Lucknow University.