Campaign aggressively, Priyanka tells cadre
LUCKNOW: Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday asked her party leaders and workers to reach out to the people and effectively convey the party’s points, besides strongly countering any vicious propaganda.
Though she did not name any political party directly, her reference to the BJP, SP and BSP was obvious as she referred to 32-year rule of non-Congress parties that had taken the state on the path of decline.
She said campaigning for the party and countering the vicious propaganda of non-Congress parties was as important on social media as it was on the ground. “We need to bring out the truth,” she said while pointing out how campaigns based on spreading hatred and lies were launched on social media.
Priyanka, who is likely to wind up her five-day visit on Friday, also addressed senior leaders at a meeting of the advisory committee. She said the party’s campaign should be aggressive and sought opinion of members before the campaign was launched in the second week of October in Varanasi, the Lok Sabha seat of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Those aware of developments said the Congress Pratigya Yatras may be launched on four different routes on October 17. Through these yatras, party leaders had been asked to convey the promises the party proposed to make to the people in the 2022 assembly elections.
The party proposes to hold a rally at Meerut on October 20 and a mega public rally is likely to be held in Lucknow on November 19.
As the Congress has launched micro plans for every assembly constituency, an aggressive campaign to reach out to the people by going door to door is likely to be launched after the Lucknow mega rally.
A meeting of the Congress’ screening committee and Pradesh Election Committee was also held here.
Senior party leaders Bhanwar Jitendra Singh chaired the meeting that was also attended by Randeep Singh Hooda (MP) and Varsha Gaekwad, MLA. The party has invited applications from aspiring candidates for the 2022 assembly polls by October 10. The Congress leaders pointed out that youths and women should be given preference in distribution of tickets.
The party has given indications that the first list of candidates will be out by the second week of October.
Speaking to media persons later, Hooda did not share much about the screening committee meeting and said only preliminary discussions about the selection of candidates were held on Thursday.
A number of delegations also met Priyanka here on Thursday. A party functionary said the delegations included those from weavers, banjara, Rajbhar and Nishad communities and the discussions focused around the issues concerning them.
“This is the time for Congress to set its own house in order. Senior Congress leaders are questioning the party leadership and all this does not send a good message to the people at this juncture. The Congress should strengthen its organization at grassroots level to give a categorical message that the party is there in contention, otherwise no campaign is going to help the party,” said professor SK Dwivedi, former head of the department of political science, Lucknow University.