LS polls: Cong revs up outreach prog to tilt scales in its favour

Hyderabad: With less than a fortnight for Phase-VI of Lok Sabha covering Telangana, the Congress party on the similar lines of Assembly polls has begun reaching out to different groups and associations representing different farmers, women, disabled, apart from castes and religious groups.

Besides taking forward the promises made in the Manifesto, the strategy is part of the two-pronged approach of the State Congress leadership which is trying to set a narrative that BJP would scrap the reservation both through public meetings and reaching out and roping in various groups.

As part of these efforts the Congress on Monday held a get together of the Golla Kuruma caste, where the leaders including Minister Ponnam Prabhakar, PCC working president and MLC B Mahesh Kumar Goud and AICC campaign committee chairman Madhu Yashki Goud assured that the government would not only support the community but as promised Golla Kurma Corporation will be set up.

This is in cohesion with the Congress party assertion in the Manifesto that OBC, SC and ST despite constituting 70 percent of India’s population, their representation in high-ranking professions, services and businesses is disproportionately low.

Even Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy is trying to hard sell that if BJP comes to power it will scrap the reservation entirely, while Congress will conduct a nation-wide Socio-Economic and Caste Census to enumerate the castes and sub-castes and their socio-economic conditions.

Based on the data, the Congress will strengthen the agenda for affirmative action.

Earlier on Sunday, while emphasising that it was the Congress which has recognised different sections of the society, Chevella MP and Congress candidate for the Constituency G Ranjith Reddy assured that the disabled will get their fair share under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi. He also reassured that all the promises in its manifesto will be implemented. Amongst other promises he said that Congress was committed and will expand Articles 15 and 16 of the Constitution to prohibit discrimination on the ground of ‘disability’ and ‘impairment’. He said that the Congress will recognise the Braille script and Sign Language as languages.

The newly formed 7-member Election Management Committee has set the target of reaching out to at least two to three groups in each of the constituencies to take forward the promises made in Manifesto. It has planned District wise meetings and reviews for getting support of these organisations. As part of this besides resolving their issues, the promises in the Manifesto will be highlighted.

Parallelly, frontal organisations like NSUI, Mahila Congress, Youth Congress and other organisatoins will take forward the message. Besides distribution of material during door to door campaigns, the Congress party is also holding meetings with key leaders. These meetings will also have power point presentations. Later this will be taken forward amongst the voters and the public will be mobilised in favour of the Congress.