New Delhi: Building on the momentum of the party’s Bharat Jodo Yatra (BJY), the Congress is planning to visit every household in the country over the next two months with a letter from ‘Apka Apna’ Rahul Gandhi. A follow-up programme to the BJY, called the ‘Haath Se Haath Jodo Abhiyan,’ may be the party’s largest mass contact programme in the recent past. In fact, when asked, most leaders in the party now failed to recall the last time such an exercise was carried out by the Congress.
The Abhiyan will be conducted in 2.5 lakh gram panchayats, 6 lakh villages and 10 lakh polling booths, the party said Friday, in what looks like a bid to counter the oft-held perception that decision-making in the party is restricted to the annals of its headquarters in Delhi.
The programme was conceived at a meeting of the party’s steering committee last month.
Unlike the Yatra, which the party has maintained is not a political exercise and is “delinked” from the election process, Haath Se Haath Jodo will have a ‘political packaging’, said MP and party general secretary Jairam Ramesh at a press conference in Delhi, Friday.
“People questioned us on the fact that political issues were not raised during the Bharat Jodo Yatra. They asked us why it was not talking about elections when we’re a political party. We’d thus said throughout the Yatra that there would be a follow-up to the Yatra and this follow-up will be political”, said Ramesh.
“You will notice that the BJY logo does not have the Congress symbol, but the logo of the Haath Se Haath Jodo Abhiyaan will have the party symbol,” he added.
‘Apka Apna Rahul’
As reported by ThePrint earlier, the Abhiyan will be conducted at three levels- block, district and state.
There will be a continuous 2-month long padyatra in each block and a public meeting in each district which will be attended by national and state leaders. These events will culminate into a final programme at the state headquarters of the party, that will either be led by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge or Rahul Gandhi. A separate women’s march will also be held in the state capital and will be led by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
Congress workers are expected to go door-to-door to deliver Gandhi’s letter and a “chargesheet” against Prime Minister Modi to the voters, according to the party general secretary.
“I write to you after completing the historic 3,500 km long Bharat Jodo Yatra where millions of Indians walked with us from Kanyakumari to Kashmir. It was the most enriching journey of my life, and I’m overwhelmed by the love and affection every single Indian has showered on us,”writes Rahul in the letter, which will be translated to all regional languages.
Thereafter, he talks of a “palpable economic crisis,” joblessness, inflation, corporate capture of wealth and the fact that the country’s plurality is “under threat.”
“The Haath Se Haath Jodo Abhiyan is our initiative to spread the message of unity and brotherhood. Through this abhiyan, the Congress party is extending its hand to you – lend a hand, come together to put the country back on the path of building a Swarnim Bharat- where every single individual has an equal chance to fulfill their dream,” he adds, before signing off as ‘Aapka Apna Rahul.’
State units of the party have been instructed to begin preparations for the abhiyan which will be a two-month long programme from 26 January, 2023 to 26 March, 2023.
On 24 December, the party’s general secretary in-charge of organization, K.C. Venugopal held meetings with state unit chiefs, Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leaders and state Chief Ministers to discuss the plan for the yatra and delegate responsibilities.
As per party functionaries, there will be two months of continuous padyatra in each block under two senior leaders per block. These senior leaders will be assigned by the PCC (Pradesh Congress Committee- the party’s state unit). The PCC leaders will help organize the yatra in the blocks, but it will be led by Block Congress leaders to promote grassroots leadership.
The village level sabhas will focus on interactions with influencers in the area and at the district level, a karyakarta sammelan will also be organized.
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