New Delhi: The Congress will focus on a micro-level campaign, comprising region-wise strategy and small corner meetings to maximize voter connect and counter the BJP and AAP in poll-bound Himachal Pradesh.
“The state leaders have already started the campaign but the focus now will be on micro-level planning,” Himachal Congress chief Pratibha Singh said. On Sunday, Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel reviewed the party’s poll campaign along with senior leaders on Sunday. Baghel, who was recently appointed senior AICC observer for Himachal Pradesh by party chief Sonia Gandhi, reviewed the poll preparations along with the two other observers Sachin Pilot and Partap Singh Bajwa.
“The Chhattisgarh chief minister shared his experience of managing poll campaigns with us,” said Pratibha Singh. The hill-state will have assembly polls in November when the weather turns extreme in some parts. Some areas in the state get rains and snowfall by October and become difficult to reach while others are relatively accessible.
According to campaign chief Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, different regions in the state will have to be covered keeping in mind the local weather conditions. Further, given that 90 percent of the population lives in the rural areas, which are spread over small hamlets, voter reachout needs to be planned much in advance and wrapped up in time.
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“Besides the region-wise plans, we are also asking the locals their specific issues which will be included in our poll manifesto,” said Sukhu. “An exercise to obtain feedback will explain our position to the voter in a better way. How people perceive a party is now very important in the elections,” he said. The other change would be to reduce the number of big rallies, which present logistics issues, and focus on small corner meetings, which are more convenient to organize and can be arranged at a short notice, said Sukhu.
“Our past experience has shown that people respond better to small corner meetings,” he said. Given that Himachal voters have a preference for a government job as the state is not very industrialized, the Congress has decided to revive the Old Pension Scheme, if voted to power. “If we form a government, we will restart the Old Pension Scheme on day one,” CLP Mukesh Agnihotri said.
“We are also preparing a list of other issues like improving education and health care facilities and creating more jobs for the youth,” he said. Plans are afoot to start a foot march demanding jobs from the BJP government over the next few days, said AICC in charge of HP Rajeev Shukla. According to state unit chief Pratibha Singh, people know the Congress will keep its promises as was done during the previous party governments headed by former chief minister late Virbhadra Singh.
Baghel, who played a key role in the 2021 Assam assembly elections and later in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, also told the Himachal leaders to counter the BJP’s negative agenda with facts.
