New Delhi: The Congress is planning to run an aggressive campaign ahead of the Gujarat Assembly polls later this year and is working for the early finalisation of candidates to have an advantage over the ruling BJP. “We need to run a systematic campaign against the ruling BJP, said AICC Secretary In-charge of Gujarat BM Sandeep Kumar.
The message to run an aggressive campaign, highlighting the failures of the BJP government, early finalisation of candidates and plugging the coordination gaps quickly was underscored by AICC poll observers Chhattisgarh senior minister TS Singh Deo and former Union Minister Milind Deora, who reviewed the party strategy, along with the top Central and State leaders, on August 4.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, who was named senior observer for Gujarat, was scheduled to chair the strategy session in Ahmedabad on August 4, but had to leave for Delhi due to the ED raids on the National Herald premises and to coordinate the party’s nationwide August 5 protests against price rise and unemployment.
According to state leaders, Singh Deo and Milind Deora told the Gujarat team that Congress needed to benefit from the ruling party’s anti-incumbency of 27 years and keep highlighting the shortcomings in the Bhupendra Patel government. As part of the plan, the state Congress will run a campaign highlighting the statewide sale of illicit liquor despite Gujarat being a dry state.
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“The campaign will cover all the 182 Assembly seats and mobilise the local community against the social problem of illegal liquor,” former Gujarat Congress chief Amit Chavda said. Recently, over 40 labourers had lost their lives in the Ahmedabad and Botad areas after consuming illicit liquor.
As a goodwill gesture, Chavda has offered to provide free education to the children of those labourers, who died in the hooch tragedy. “They are very poor people, mostly labourers. Our NGO runs several schools in the area. All children of the labourers, who lost their lives will be given free education till XII standard,” said Chavda.
Already, the Youth Congress has launched a statewide campaign against the drug menace while party leaders will highlight the confiscation of huge quantities of drugs at a particular port in the western state. On early finalisation of candidates, party insiders said the move will give more time to the leaders to work in their constituencies and convey a positive message among the workers and the voters alike.
Accordingly, party panels for screening and selection of the potential candidates will be announced soon, said AICC sources. They further said that the AICC observers Singh Deo and Deora, also discussed the coordination system in the poll-bound state and asked the local teams to plug the gaps at the earliest. “This will help us manage our campaign better,” said a senior state leader.
