Chidambaram exhorts Congmen to turn tech-savvy

​Hyderabad: Former Union Minister for Home P Chidambaram on Saturday exhorted the Congress workers to use the technology extensively as it would play a key role in the next elections.

Addressing a meeting on Shakti app, Chidambaram said the political adversaries of the Congress were one step ahead in using the technology and the Congress should overcome this. 

The meeting was also attended by Congress legislative Party (CLP) leader K Jana Reddy, Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir, former Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) presidents V Hanumantha Rao and Ponnala Laxmaiah, All India Congress Committee (AICC) Data Analytics head Praveen Chakravorthy, Deputy Floor Leader of Congress in Legislative Council Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy and District Congress Committee presidents and other senior leaders. 

Chidambaram said the party workers should strive to enrol about 22 lakh voters in the state, 10 per cent of the total 2.2 crore, in the App. At least 25 voters should be enrolled in each polling booth and it should be uniform in all the constituencies.  Stating that every year about seven crore enter the voter list and said that new generation has a good knowledge on technology. Elections in the State would be held in March or April next year and party should strive to enrol about one lakh in every month till then. 

Chidambaram said that the Congress had strived to establish Telangana State and to win the next elections the Shakthi App would be immensely helpful. 

In his address, TPCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy congratulated the entire party cadre for reaching the first milestone of registering over one lakh party workers and sympathisers in Shakti programme.  Uttam Kumar Reddy said the enrolment of over one lakh workers in Shakti app programme so far showed the organisational strength of Congress party in the State. 

The active response shown by the Congress workers clearly indicated that the party was all set to return to power in 2019 elections, he added. However, he stressed on increasing the number of registrations in Shakti and said at least 20 members from each of over 31,000 polling booths should be registered in the next few days in a dedicated manner.  

The TPCC Chief said he had visited Delhi on Saturday to meet AICC president Rahul Gandhi where they had a detailed discussion on various issues including implementation of Shakti programme in Telangana State. 

He said it was on Rahul Gandhi's directions that Chidambaram was visiting Telangana and Karnataka States to review the progress of Shakti.