Rahul’s pet project ‘Shakti’ fails to take off in state

CHANDIGARH : Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s clear diktat to chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh will soon see party workers being appointed to plum positions in government bodies, but his pet project to connect with the booth-level cadres has failed to take off in Punjab.

After successfully experimenting with ‘Project Shakti’ in the recent state elections in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, where the party has returned to power, the Congress has asked all state units to compile data on their ground force ahead of the 2019 elections.

The All India Congress Committee (AICC) has asked Punjab to gear up as it is the worst performer among states. There are 22,615 polling booths in the state and the project’s target is to register 10 workers per booth. But against the target of 2.2 lakh, only 7,755 have messaged their voter ID numbers to get registered with the campaign. Of them,61% (4,789) have been found ineligible and only 2,986 have been enrolled in party’s online database.

After the worker’s message is received, their booth number, address and other details are verified from the Election Commission’s data. Most have failed the verification. “The drive has been delayed by panchayat elections in the state. We will be able to cover all 13 Lok Sabha seats by March 31 this year,” says Nirbhai Singh Kamboj, son of Congress’ Rajpura MLA Hardayal Kamboj. Handling registration of youth workers, Nirbhai says registration of some youth failed as they did not fit the age criteria (between 18 and 35 years).

State Congress chief Sunil Jakhar agrees that Punjab is a laggard. “Punjab is the only state where it has not taken off. We will soon meet to discuss the issue,” he said.

HOW SHAKTI WORKS

Prepared by AICC’S digital analytics team, the idea behind Shakti is to know who are Congress workers, which are active and what issues move them. After verification of voter ID number, the Congress officially sends each worker a message from Rahul, welcoming them to the party and asking them to accept a role in a particular district. The platform can also be used to hold surveys on winnable candidates and poll issues. From Shakti, the data is fed into party’s software, Vidya, which adds dots for every assigned task accomplished by Congress workers to identify the high achievers.

The inspiration behind the grassroot connect is ‘Mera Booth, Sabse Majboot’ drive of the BJP wherein a team of 10 to 12 dedicated party workers were assigned to each booth covering roughly 1,000 voters and party chief Amit Shah takes feedback from them. Just like Rahul recently did to elect CMS of the three states won by Congress.

AGAINST THE TARGET OF 2.2 LAKH WORKERS, ONLY 7,755 INDIVIDUALS APPLIED, OF WHICH 61% (4,789) WERE FOUND INELIGIBLE

JAKHAR TO MEET NEW DCC CHIEFS NEXT WEEK

The appointment of new presidents of Congress in HP and Delhi has fuelled fresh speculations over continuance of Sunil Jakhar as Punjab Congress chief. However, party high command’s nod to Jakhar’s list of district chiefs is being seen by a section of the party as an indication of his continuance at the helm. He will kick-start party’s Lok Sabha campaign, ‘Mission 13’, by meeting newly appointed District Congress Committee (DCC) chiefs next week. Chief minister Amarinder Singh had declared the ‘Mission 13’ in Lambi segment, the home turf of his predecessor Parkash Singh Badal, in October last year, claiming the Congress will win all 13 LS seats in the state.