Congress takes a leaf out of BJP's playbook to counter ruling party in Gujarat

The Congress is taking a leaf out of the BJP’s playbook and has started a system of appointing ‘page in charges’ at the booth-level to counter the ruling party’s old “panna pramukh” system in poll-bound Gujarat. Writes ETV Bharat's Amit Agnihotri.

New Delhi: The Congress is taking a leaf out of the BJP’s playbook and has started a system of appointing "page in charges" (an in-charge for every page in the electoral roll) at the booth-level to counter the ruling party’s old “panna pramukh” system in poll-bound Gujarat.

The grand old party is also resorting to symbolism in the western state, where assembly polls will be held later this year. It started the special drive to strengthen booth management from the iconic temple town of Somnath, in an obvious attempt to counter the ruling party’s Hindutva pitch.

“We have started a new system. The “page in charges” will strengthen our booth-level management,” former Gujarat Congress chief Amit Chavda told ETV Bharat. Congress has been out of power in the western state for 27 years and is desperate to stage a comeback.

In the 2017 assembly polls, the grand old party had won 77 seats and had come close to the halfway mark of 91 seats in a House of 182 seats. The BJP won 99 and formed the government. Later, a post-poll review showed that Congress could have crossed the halfway mark if it had been able to avoid some faulty ticket distribution and bridged the narrow gap in around 9 seats.

It was also felt that the grand old party’s poll campaign in 2017 was a very strong one but the booth management needed to be strengthened across the state. Keeping this in mind, the opposition party has been making preparations to plug the gaps in the organization over the past years.

Ahead of the 2022 assembly polls, a major initiative “Mera Booth, Mera Gaurav” to involve the workers and leaders with the voters at the local level was launched by the top leaders on Friday from the iconic temple town of Somnath. AICC in-charge of Gujarat Raghu Sharma, state unit chief Jagdish Thakor and Congress Legislative Party leader Sukhram Rathwa, senior leader Arjun Modhwadia, among others, flagged off the campaign in Somnath, which falls in the key Saurashtra region of Gujarat.

Before that, all the top Congress leaders offered prayers at the well-known Lord Shiva temple in Somnath. “We prayed to Lord Shiva for the welfare of the country and the state,” said Sharma. Later, a roadshow and a big rally were organized by the senior leaders to charge up the workers for the coming contest.

“With the blessings of Lord Shiva and the people, we will bring change in Gujarat,” said Thakor as he raised the slogans, “Jai Somnath, Jai Gujarat” along with his supporters. Both Sharma and Thakor also held a strategy session with the party workers and discussed ways to strengthen the respective booths in the area.

“The new campaign will instill a sense of pride among the party workers who would be able to work in a focused manner. Getting the voters to the booth on the polling day can make a huge difference. We have to start early,” said a party strategist.

AICC Secretary in charge of Gujarat Ramkishan Ojha said: “We prayed that the people be free of BJP’s 27-year rule.” As per the plan, formulated by Raghu Sharma along with senior state leaders, the opposition party would have one central observer for each of the 182 assembly segments in Gujrat.

Further, each booth will have a panel of 25 persons who will be responsible, above them there would be one coordinator for five booths. The local teams will go door-to-door in a booth and this will help the party managers identify the weak booths. Based on the feedback, the seniors will then survey the booth and try to cover the gaps.

Further, some of the workers would be called Jan Mitra and would keep in touch with the local voters. “The door-to-door campaign is part of the micro-management of the elections. We will explain our party policies and programs to the voters so they are better informed and can make the right decisions.

The drive will go on till the polling day,” AICC secretary in charge of Gujarat BM Sandeep said. “The Mera Booth, Mera Gaurav program will help us achieve better management of polls and establish a better connection with the people,” he said.

The stress of the door-to-door visits by the local booth-level teams would be on the Dwarka declaration and the Tribal declaration, where they listed out the things it would do for the marginalized sections if voted to power. Rahul, who recently met the senior state leaders and MLAs in Delhi, has been highlighting the plight of the Tribals in Gujarat to target the ruling BJP.

He had also claimed recently that the state government had canceled the controversial Par-Tapi-Narmada river linking scheme, which would have displaced around 50,000 Tribals, under pressure from Congress. On June 10, at a rally in Dahod, Rahul had promised to cancel the scheme if Congress came back to power. The plan was canceled days after that as the BJP strategists sensed that it could dent the party’s electoral prospects.