Cong launches campaign to reach out to voters

In the run up to the Assembly elections early next year in Karnataka, the ruling Congress here today launched "Mane-Manege Congress" (Congress at every doorstep) to reach out to the voters.
Chief minister Siddaramaiah along with state Congress president Dr G Parameshwara launched the campaign.
Besides highlighting the achievements of the government by reaching at the doorsteps of the electorate, the party intends to counter, what it calls the "fake" campaign by the BJP.
Siddaramaiah flagged off the campaign in which AICC general secretary and in charge of Karnataka K C Venugopal, KPCC president and other senior party leaders were present.

One of the assignments to the party workers is to distribute booklets in different languages, highlighting work and achievements of the government in the state.
The booklets contain details on all poll promises delivered by the party and the various welfare schemes initiated by the government, including variousschemes of Bhagya series such as Anna Bhagya, Ksheera Bhagya, Pashu Bhagya, Arogya Bhagya.

The party has also decided to take credit for the mid-day meal, scholarships and completion of first phase of Metro rail and starting the second phase.
Speaking on the occasion, Parameshwara said "Karnataka Government has been successful in ensuring political stabilityand providing people friendly programmes with decisive leadership in the last five years."

"Our track record is excellent. With this campaign we are trying to fill the communication gap by disseminating the Government's achievements to the public", he said.
The launch of Mane Manege also marks a major shift in the way Congress had been handling election.
A senior party functionary working at the organisation level said, "we are shifting from a 'mass based party' to a cadre based party. We will set up booth level committees comprising a booth president, booth in charge and booth agent. In all we will have 11 to 21 members in each committee."
To start with, the party has set up one booth committee in each ward and soon the network will have 66,000 booth-level workers covering all 224 assembly constituencies for campaign.

A booth-level workers' conference too is on the cards next month, which the Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi will attend.