New Delhi: Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot Thursday conducted a ‘Labharthi Utsav’ (beneficiary festival) in poll-bound Rajasthan, as he looks to break the trend of change of guards after every five years.
The festival, conducted on Rajasthan Day, was ‘celebrated’ in 355 blocks and 33 districts headquarters of Rajasthan where the beneficiaries of the state schemes gathered to interact with the CM, according to details released by the government.
The move, according to sources in the Congress party, was inspired by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) outreach programmes to beneficiaries of schemes of the central government.
Rajasthan will go to the polls at the end of this year.
According to a government source, the local administration in each block was given the target of gathering 500 beneficiaries at each location from a 5km radius. Gehlot himself was meeting 5,000 beneficiaries in Jaipur, and his address at the programme was live-streamed across the 388 locations.
The programme was ideated by the political strategy firm, DesignBoxed, which was engaged by Gehlot to handle his campaign for the polls. “This is the first of many such beneficiary outreach programmes that the Gehlot government will undertake ahead of the polls,” a DesignBoxed functionary told ThePrint.
The functionary added that, while this is a government programme aimed at public outreach, it was intended to serve the additional purpose of “rejuvenating” the Congress cadre in the state.
“In each block and district, party cadres and organisational post holders have been called as invitees to participate in the programme, so that they can see the sheer number of beneficiaries of the government schemes,” the functionary said.
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‘Tide over factionalism’
A senior leader in Rajasthan Congress told ThePrint that the Gehlot dispensation was using this event to tide over the factional feud between the CM and former deputy CM and state Congress chief, Sachin Pilot.
“Right now, the cadre is in two minds on whether or not to side with any leader and if yes, which one to side with. They are also demotivated and think that as per Rajasthan’s tradition (anti-incumbency trend), our government will not be repeated,” the leader said. “We must, however, show them that there is a realistic possibility of winning the election.”
The leader added that the cadre were asked to attend the Labharthi Utsav as invitees. “The local administration was assigned the task of going door-to-door and inviting the beneficiaries. If the cadre sees that there are so many beneficiaries of the government schemes, then they will know that these beneficiaries will also vote for Gehlot and the Congress,” the Congress leader said.
Meanwhile, Sachin Pilot told the media Thursday that he’d given his inputs on the election to the party’s high command and that it is up to them to implement his suggestions.
“These discussions are ongoing. People are doing the work they’ve been given. The inputs that I had to give about the state, party and government have been communicated to the central leadership. They have accepted some of them and taken steps to implement them,” Pilot said.
“But the end decision will be with the party leadership. We want that this trend of alternate BJP and Congress governments that has been part of the state for 30 years, should end. We think that the government can be repeated. When will the high-command act on the inputs and how much they’ll act is something only they can answer,” he added.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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