New Delhi: The All India Congress Committee (AICC) seems to be happy over the performance of the Chhattisgarh government headed by chief minister Bhupesh Baghel and is mobilizing the party machinery to take the development message to the voters ahead of the upcoming assembly election, sources told ETV Bharat.
The party, which has 72 MLAs in the state assembly, has kept the target for the coming assembly polls at 75 seats out of total 90. Assembly elections in Chhattisgarh are scheduled later this year. To meet the target of 75 seats, the Congress organized five regional leadership summits in different zones like Raipur, Sarguja where AICC in charge Kumari Selja and the chief minister discussed the outreach details with the local level leaders.
“The state government has fulfilled around 98 percent of the promises that were made by the party in 2018. But we want the message to reach the voters down to the booth level. That plan of action was discussed at the five regional leadership summits held across the state recently,” AICC secretary in charge of Chhattisgarh Saptagiri Ulaka told ETV Bharat.
“The local leaders were asked to organize similar conclaves at the district level and take the message to the voters. We are training the party workers across the state on how to carry out that outreach effectively,” he said. During the outreach, the party workers would highlight the implementation of the Old Pension Scheme, and the GoDhan Nyay scheme which allows villagers to earn money from sale of cow dung.
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Among the other schemes are the health vans for the rural areas, the jobs provided to the locals, land titles given to the Tribals and the better crop prices given to farmers. Besides, the achievements of the state government, the “shortcomings of the previous BJP government in the state and the failures of the central government” would also be flagged by the Congress workers, Congress sources said.
“The assembly polls are fought on local issues but the problems like price rise and unemployment are also due to the functioning of the central government. The fuel prices, LPG prices, the resultant inflation are all because of the Centre’s policies,” said Ulaka. “Scams worth Rs 1 lakh crore took place during the rule of the previous BJP chief minister Raman Singh,” he said.
According to party insiders, Chhattisgarh was the decisive victory for the Congress in 2018 when the party wrested power from the BJP by winning 68 assembly seats out of total 90. The BJP had got only 15 seats. Over the past years, the Congress increased its tally to 72 by winning the by-polls. Besides the messaging, the party leaders also took stock of the organizational gaps in the districts and asked the local leaders to fill up the vacant party posts on an urgent basis.
“We want the organization to be toned up before the polls,” said Ulaka. According to the AICC secretary, earlier the chief minister himself traveled across the state in a voter outreach and assessed the impact of the welfare schemes. “The government of course does its own assessment of the work done and the chief minister has been very active on this front. But we as a party also want that the good words should be spread around. The voters must be better informed so they make a good decision,” said Ulaka.
