Cong reaches out to intellectuals
LUCKNOW: The Congress organised a closed-door interaction with intellectuals here on Monday. The move comes in the backdrop of the party’s yatras in the state.
The party’s campaign committee chairman Sanjay Singh and chief ministerial candidate Sheila Dikshit interacted with select invitees who included retired bureaucrats, former high court judges, university professors and medical professionals.
“Yes, this is an effort to reach out to people at a different level altogether. We will use this opportunity to communicate with them about the party’s ideology and programmes,” said Singh.
He said the party’s ‘yatras’ were getting an overwhelming response. The ‘mang patras’ listing demands of farmers, including the demand for a loan waiver, were being accepted well by the farmers, he said. The farmers had faith in the Congress’ leadership in view of the UPA government’s loan waiver of Rs 70,000 crore and the party’s stiff opposition to the NDA government’s amendments to the land acquisition act, he said, adding, the situation was turning in favour of Congress now.
Dikshit said, “This is the party’s first effort to reach out to the intellectuals now. Another interaction will be organised by the end of this month at Noida. More such get-togethers may be planned in the coming months,” said Dikshit.
Although the invitees were non-political, the discussions at the interactive session centred only around politics – mainly the prevailing political scenario ahead of 2017 assembly elections.
“It’s time the Congress should come back to power in the state. The party’s ideology is acceptable to all the sections of society,” said a former bureaucrat while discussing the political situation.
“But if it happens it will be a miracle,” said the officers. “Yes, the Congress will be back to power this time,” said Dikshit. Another former officer said the party’s performance would improve in 2017 assembly elections. “The Congress may, however have, to explore options of an alliance in the post-poll scenario if no party gets a clear majority in UP,” said the former bureaucrat.