NEW DELHI: As a big takeaway from Gujarat, the Congress plans for the next round of Assembly polls next year and the Lok Sabha polls in 2019, with focus on three aspects — scientific selection of candidates, early declaration of their lists and appointment of workers for booth-level management and campaign.
The party is roping in the professionals to conduct scientific analysis of vote share in each constituency, demographics and voting patterns and identification of the right candidates. While the party has put the budget of Rs 80 lakh per constituency for analysis by the professionals, a parallel in-house studies will be also undertaken to identify the winning candidates and both the studies will be compared while deciding th candidates.
Unlike the previous elections when the party used to wait till the last minutes to declare candidates just before close of nominations, party sources said Rahul Gandhi indicated in the CWC meeting on Friday that the candidates will be announced months ahead to give them an edge over their rivals by beginning the campaign early.
On the BJP’s strategy of analysing voteshare and voting patterns in the constituencies, the Congress is also planning a similar exercise more scientifically, taking into account local feedback and field presence of the selectors to judge performance of the proposed candidates.
The party is mounting a separate exercise of identifying 10 to 20 dedicated party workers in each polling booth who can devote their maximum time in contacting the voters right from January and sending feedback on their aspirations. The Congress had created a centralised mechanism in Ahmedabad that remained in 24×7 touch with the party workers at the booth level through mobiles, emails and social media like facebook and whatsApp. It wants to replicate it across the country, starting with the states that go for the polls in the coming months, leading to the big ticket Lok Sabha polls.
“Whatever research the BJP undertakes, we will be two steps ahead of them by adopting a scientific methodology to gauge the mood in the constituencies,” says AICC secretary Tom Vadakkan.
The Assembly elections are due in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh towards the end of 2018, but the Congress would start the exercise of identifying the probable candidates from the next month. Rajasthan Congress chief Sachin Pilot says present of the candidates on the ground will be factored in as the party is already conducting studies of the candidates who lost the elections last time to assess their position in the constituencies. “Someone who lost an election but still holding sway over the constituency could be given another chance,” Pilot said.
