New Delhi: The Congress has resorted to micro-managing its Lok Sabha campaign in Uttar Pradesh and will organise training camps for booth-level workers on all the 80 seats to boost voter turnout and cooperation with ally Samajwadi Party.
“I recently held a two-day orientation workshop for the district and block presidents in Lucknow. They will further hold similar workshops on all the 80 Lok Sabha seats to train booth-level workers ahead of polls,” AICC general secretary in charge of UP Avinash Pande said.
“The training cum orientation camps will ensure cooperation with the local level SP workers which is crucial for the polls. Our workers will also be trained on how to publicize the five Nyay and 25 guarantees among the voters,” he said.
According to party insiders around 500 party workers and leaders attended the Lucknow workshop. Besides, the party is also aiming at filling up the organizational gaps across the state.
“The organisational work started soon after I took charge. We have covered a lot of organizational gaps and the process is going on,” said Pande.
In the past, a weak organisation had been cited as a limiting factor by the Congress strategists in UP. However, this time, there is additional support from the ally SP, which has a strong organisational base across the state.
According to party insiders, the first test of the cooperation within the opposition bloc would come on April 19 when 8 seats in western UP would go to polls. Out of the 8, the Congress is contesting only one Saharanpur where it has fielded Imran Masood, who has been with the SP and BSP in the past.
“The alliance hopes to do well in the phase 1 polling where the stakes are high for the SP. The training camps will be conducted in all the phase 1 seats over the coming days,” AICC secretary in charge of UP Pradeep Narwal said.
Party insiders said the flip flop on the Rampur seat was an internal matter of the SP and the Congress had nothing to say on it. On March 27, there was confusion over the Rampur candidate between two claimants Asim Raza and Ruchi Veera, who finally filed her papers.
Besides training the workers, the grand old party has also set up control rooms on all the 80 Lok Sabha seats which are linked to the state level control room in Lucknow.
“Communication is the key and a lot of information needs to be exchanged during the polls. This new system will help us improve our election management,” said Pande.
“We have also prepared a social media plan and our teams will work in coordination with the control rooms. Though the people have made up their mind we need to remind them regularly why they should vote for the INDIA alliance. Social media has become a very influential platform during elections especially to reach the young voters,” he said.
The AICC general secretary said he was satisfied with ticket distribution. The party has announced candidates on several of the 17 seats it is contesting.
