Inspired by Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Voter Adhikari Yatra’ in Bihar, the Bengal Congress has decided to hold ‘Voter Adhikar Sammelan’ across all districts to “revive and reconstruct” the organisational base ahead of the Assembly elections.
The ‘Voter Adhikar Sammelan’ aims to rejuvenate the party at the grassroots level by setting up block-level committees and shortlisting at least three potential candidates per constituency. The South 24-Parganas district unit of the Congress will hold the first such conference at Jadavpur on Sunday.
To augment the ‘Voter Adhikar Sammelan’, the Congress has launched a month-long public outreach campaign in Bengal, called “Vote Chor Gaddi Chhod”, which started on Saturday and will gather public support through signature drives.
The campaign was inaugurated by AICC general secretary and in-charge of Bengal affairs Ghulam Ahmad Mir, along with Bengal Congress president Subhankar Sarkar and other senior leaders.
Although the Congress is yet to make its position fully clear about its possible electoral tie-ups, Sarkar, who did not rule out the possibility of contesting the elections independently, is focusing first on strengthening the organisation at the block and grassroots levels.
“Cry and demand of the people of Bengal is the presence of Congress in all 294 Assembly segments. Our main objective is to make ourselves strong enough as a viable force in all 294 Assembly segments. We want to achieve this target first, and time will tell whether to fight alone or with others. People feel that unless the Congress becomes strong, Bengal’s lost pride and glory will never be revived,” Sarkar told The Telegraph.
On Friday, the Bengal Congress held a meeting of district party presidents from 33 organisational districts, where it was decided that over the next two months, the party would organise ‘Voter Adhikar Sammelan’, public meetings, and rallies in all districts.
“During this period, district presidents have been asked to form block-level committees as soon as possible,” said Suman Roy Chaudhuri, convenor of the party’s
media cell.
Party insiders revealed that the sudden acceleration in organisational activities followed a direct instruction from AICC general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal on Thursday, urging the Bengal unit to overhaul its structure. Within 24 hours of his directive, the Congress held its first organisational meeting and adopted a policy to shortlist at least three candidates per Assembly constituency.
The Bengal Congress is also preparing to face the impending special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral roll, expected to begin after Durga Puja. The Congress leadership aims to complete the organisational restructuring well before the SIR kicks off in Bengal.
“It is a challenging situation and our presence on the ground is the demand of the people since the way the Centre used the EC to delete crores of voters in Bihar in the name of SIR is shocking. The Centre used the EC for its own political agenda, which we cannot allow in Bengal,” Chaudhuri said.
Meanwhile, in the first meeting of the state election committee held at Bidhan Bhavan, in presence of AICC General Secretary and Bengal observer Ghulam Ahmad Mir, along with co-observers Amba Prasad and Asaf Ali Khan and others, it was decided that the process of appointing observers for each Assembly constituency will be completed soon, and the process of shortlisting potential candidates will commence immediately.
Sarkar said: “We want to start the process of submitting the names of the candidates to the election committee in advance. This process will continue in phases.”
To take forward the interaction that a section of Matuas recently had with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, a team led by state president Sarkar will visit the Matua abode in Thakurnagar to assess the pulse of the community whose loyalty is largely divided between the BJP and the Trinamool Congress.