Congress launches a team-building activity named Project Priyadarshini

  BENGALURU: The Congress is making efforts to unite its support base through the Project Priyadarshini, which is a  team-building activity to reach out to the women who are aged between 18 and 35 through social activities. The project is named after the former Prime Minister Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi, the project was launched on November 19 when her 101st birth anniversary was celebrated, in New Delhi.

As the BJP has managed so far to strike at the right chord with youngsters, the Congress also wants to improve its prospects, by taking college girls and working women on board. “Enrolment has already begun and the project will formally be launched in Karnataka later this month,” said Pushpa Amarnath. The enrolment is in progress in Mandya, Udupi and Tumkur, and the drive will be extending across the state, she added. 

Members of the project—Priyadarshini's—will not be taking part directly in the campaigning, but will try to connect to the women voters and the party through social activities at the ground level. “We’ve identified working areas like education, health, safety and employment, where women will be given orientation through workshops and awareness programmes,” said Bhavya Narasimhamurthy, the state coordinator of the project.

Bhavya, who is the former employee of KPMG, had left her MNC job to join the state Congress manifesto team last year, she said that the aim is to enrol 1,000 Priyadarshini's from each district, so that the party will have around 30,000 ‘foot soldiers’ by the end of December.

The member of Congress manifesto committee for Lok Sabha elections Prof Rajeev Gowda, said that “Youngsters are perceived to be averse to political participation and it’s the need of the hour to take them on board. It is imperative to give representation to young women in political discourse, and that’s what Project Priyadarshini is aimed at.”
 
“The drawback of the Congress in its present form is the lack of a clearly defined ideology. In the past, it had positioned itself as left-of-centre, but it now seems confused with its leaders talking about soft Hindutva, while the party wants to take on the rightist ideology of the BJP. This ambiguity may not help the Congress in convincing youngsters, who are much more pragmatic.” said political analyst NK Mohanram