The Aryavarth Express
Agency (New Delhi): On April 3, when Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge walked into narrow lanes of Usmanpur in North Delhi to launch the party’s ‘Ghar Ghar Guarantee’ programme, it was also a trip down the memory lane.
It was in this very area nearly five decades ago that the Congress’s ‘hand’ symbol was used in an election for the first time. It was for a bye election from the Ghonda assembly seat – wherein Usmanpur lies—to the then Metropolitan Council in 1978. After the Congress split in 1977, when Devraj Urs faction took the ‘cow and calf’ symbol, Indira Gandhi chose hand.
And if she was looking to make a comeback after her loss in 1977, the Congress finds itself in an even more critical situation on the eve of 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Take for instance, North East Delhi. The constituency of slums and resettlement colonies was once a Congress stronghold. It now votes AAP in the Assembly and BJP in the Lok Sabha elections. The BJP has once fielded popular Bhojpuri singer and actor Manoj Tiwari from the seat, which is home to a sizeable population of migrants from Eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
But with arrest of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the Congress sniffs a chance to win back the constituency. The AAP workers are supporting the Congress candidate Hence the decision to launch its ‘Ghar Ghar Guarantee’ from the area. As part of the outreach effort, the party is distributing guarantee cards that lists party’s five main poll promises. While Kharge launched the initiative in Usmanpur, Rahul Gandhi did so on the same day in Wayanad from where he is contesting. This, said a senior Congress, was done to balance north and south.
As part of the programme, the party workers will go to eight crore households with the guarantee cards. The idea behind the campaign is to mobilize the organization and enthuse the workers.
The same senior leader also pointed out that, this time, the manifesto was released in fairly good time. In 2019, it was launched just four days before the first phase of elections, which meant the organization did not get enough time to popularize the promises.
“Nyay Patra” was made public on April 5, and, for the first time, the Congress held rallies to release manifesto. While Kharge alongside Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, launched the manifesto in Jaipur—where the party failed to retain power in the Assembly elections in December—Rahul, with Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and senior leader K C Venugopal released it in Hyderabad; the Congress won Telangana in the last round of elections.
“The aim behind the flurry of activity over the Manifesto release and the Ghar Ghar Guarantee programme is to signal that our morale is not down,” said the senior Congress leader. “It is meant to deny the narrative that the Congress is on defensive in the background of action taken by the Income Tax Department and the constant harping by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the BJP will cross 370 seats and the NDA will win more than 400”.
Over the past one-and-a-half-years, the Congress has attempted to keep ready what were seen as its power areas. The election of Kharge as party President, for instance, was seen as an effort to blunt the BJP’s ‘dynasty party’ attack. Rahul undertook two cross-country yatras to re-establish the party’s connect with the people and also redeem his own image as a leader. The Congress has made compromises and sacrificed seats to stitch alliances. Also, it has also tried to think of game—changing ideas to counter the BJP’s Hindutva-plus campaign; it hopes its emphasis on the caste census will help. (IPA Service)
By Harihar Swarup