Congress to release UP manifesto six months ahead of assembly polls

Party plans to consult a million voters from different sections of the electorate

The Congress will release its election manifesto six months prior to state assembly polls, and has decided to consult over a million stakeholders before coming out with the final draft. The people the party will reach out to include farmers, students, youths, women, pensioners, traders, entrepreneurs, workers, and petty shopkeepers, among others.

According to senior party leaders, consultations with stakeholders had begun in January this year. Over four dozen representatives from various mass organisations were called for a two-day process in Kanpur. However, the exercise was hampered due to covid-19 and lockdown. Now the party will restart the process soon and almost all the districts would be covered.

Congress general secretary and in-charge of UP affairs, Priyanka Gandhi, has asked the party leaders to prepare the manifesto as per the demand and aspirations or the people instead of making it a customary exercise. 

She has asked party members to include all sections of society in the consultation process. According to a youth leader of the Congress, the idea is to decentralise the process of preparing the election manifesto. To broaden the base of consultation, meetings would be held in every district of the state. He said the manifesto would be released six to eight months before the polls. However, there will be possibility of adding more issues in it at the time of election.

It may be mentioned that on Sunday evening, the central leadership of congress had released the list of manifesto committee members. The list includes former union minister Salman Khursheed, former MP P L Punia, UP legislator party leader Aradhana Mishra, Vivek Bansal, Supriya Srinet and Amitabh Dubey. While the committee will compile suggestions and prepare a final draft of the manifesto, local leaders and party workers will be deployed to hold consultations with a large number of people all over the state.