Gujarat Polls: Congress to reach out to youth at grass-root level

The Congress Party has said that it will extensively use social media tools in the upcoming Gujarat Legislative Assembly Election to reach the masses, especially the youth at the grass root level.

The grand-old party took this decision in an eight-hour long meeting called on Wednesday in the national capital.

As per the reports, various agencies gave their presentation for the campaigning of the upcoming poll.

"We called a meeting today draw a roadmap for the polls ahead. We have worked out the strategy for the same. After Maharashtra, Gujarat has witnessed maximum urbanization. The literacy rate has increased, but around 10 lakh literate youth are still unemployed. It is due to the present government's policy the number of unemployed has considerably increased," said Gujarat Congress senior leader, Arjun Modhwadia.

Modhwadia further informed that the meeting was called to chalk out the plan to deal with such strategy.

Another Congress leader Bharatsinh Solanki said that the final decision on the campaigning process will be taken by the political leaders, adding that no decision has yet been taken on the PR agency.

"We chalked out the plan for the upcoming Gujarat legislative assembly election with different agencies. All the agencies have given their views. We will consider their suggestions," Solanki said.

The meeting was attended by senior Congress leaders including Rajya Sabha MP Ahmed Patel and Ashok Gehlot.

Patel has retained his Rajya Sabha seat from Gujarat by winning 44 votes.

Voting for the three Rajya Sabha seats was conducted on August 8.

Patel said it is a big victory because efforts were made to ensure his defeat.

"It is a big victory because the election was tough. Efforts were made to ensure my defeat, but still I won," Patel told ANI.

"Our next target is Gujarat Assembly election, will work for it," he said.

Congress had made candidature of Ahmed Patel as a matter of prestige in the Rajya Sabha polls.

The BJP also left no stone unturned to win all the three seats. The saffron pitted Balwantsinh Rajput, a recent acquisition from the Congress, against Ahmed Patel knowing that Patel's defeat will bring huge embarrassment for Sonia Gandhi since he is her political secretary.

Ahmed Patel's victory has acted as booster for the Congress ahead of the crucial assembly elections in the state. Assembly election will be held in 2017 as the tenure of Gujarat assembly ends on January 22, 2018.

The grand old party is out of power in Gujarat since 1998.