 "Rahul Gandhi")
Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) office in Lucknow was abuzz with activity on Friday with senior Congressman and former union minister R P N Singh confabulating with party leaders ahead of the launch of an ambitious campaign to build momentum before the 2017 UP polls.
Under the tutelage of master poll strategist Prashant Kishor alias PK, the grand old party of India is all set to unveil its latest poll weapon of 'Khat Sabha', which would witness party's star campaigner and vice president Rahul Gandhi interact with villagers and farmers while sitting on the rustic 'charpoy' at the most non-descript places in the backwaters.
In run up to the 2012 Lok Sabha polls, PK had devised a similar strategy for then Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, who went on to rally support of common man through 'Chai pe Charcha'. The rest is history as BJP formed the next central government with majority.
Congress, which has been out of power in UP for over two decades now, is desperately seeking to improve its tally in the state assembly from under 30 now in the 403-member Vidhan Sabha.
Earlier, Team PK, which is managing the UP poll campaign, had postulated that Rahul would be more effective in his one-to-one and informal interactions with the man on the street than his long speeches atop a dais during public rallies.
Once the party was convinced of the idea, the consort of Congress and Team PK evolved the concept of 'Khat Sabhas' to be held in the nook and corner of UP, where elections are due early 2017.
The campaign would be launched in the eastern UP district of Deoria on September 6 and subsequently touch other districts.
During these interactions, Rahul would also answer the queries raised by the locals and subtly hold out pre-poll promises as well, sources said. All this while, Team PK would be taking the feedback of the people to incorporate these in the party's poll manifesto for the state.
Besides, other prominent state party leaders would interact with the general public and an estimated 2,50,000 party cadres would reach out to 20 million households in UP. The party leaders would promise a debt waiver scheme if it comes to power. The cadres would also distribute poll publicity material to people, including mobile phone stickers.
Meanwhile, PK has been camping in Deoria and R P N Singh is likely to join him tomorrow to prepare for the much hyped event that seeks to replicate Modi's success in the next state polls for Congress.
Rahul is scheduled to tour 39 districts and cover about 2,500 km spanning 55 parliamentary constituencies, wherein Congress would be seeking to regain its Midas touch in UP. Over the next month, the Congress heir apparent would spend much of his time in the state for the programme.
This time round, Congress is hoping to expand its vote bank to include upper caste voters, apart from its traditional constituency of dalits and Muslims. To attract Brahmin electorate, the party had announced the candidature of former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit as its CM face in UP.
