Kejri’s visit spurs ‘worried’ Cong into action

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 1

The Congress is all set to start planning for the Punjab poll campaign. The party’s election strategist Prashant Kishor is scheduled to make his first visit to the state this Thursday.

Top sources in the Congress told The Tribune today that Kishor would arrive in Chandigarh on March 3 and was expected to meet state leaders as part of the process of Congress’ election planning for Punjab. He would first meet former Chief Minister and president of the state unit Capt Amarinder Singh at Chandigarh.

Kishore’s visit to the state would come close on the heels of AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal’s Punjab visit and the positive response that his sojourns to Doaba, Malwa and Majha areas got.

State leaders are increasingly getting restive with Kejriwal’s aggressive canvassing plans in Punjab and his strategy of targeting voters through a vast army of volunteers he had reportedly hired for the job.

A senior leader today said, “We have told the party leadership of the urgency to start campaigning today and now. Late entry could prove costly and this is the feeling many state leaders have. AAP volunteers, we learn, will make six visits to all voters before the Assembly elections in the state. We have to start early to blunt any possibility of an early advantage that AAP might want to take.”

It is in this backdrop of cadre anxiety that the Congress would plan its Punjab election strategy. Party sources said Kishor had already conducted preliminary surveys and would come armed with inputs on what the Congress needed to do to win the state, which was expected to script the party’s national revival after a series of disappointing losses.

The Congress has also lined up its first meeting on Punjab election manifesto in Chandigarh on March 3. A leader invited for the meeting said, “We do not yet have a formal manifesto committee for Punjab elections, but we will begin discussions on what we must offer to our electorate.” Asked if Kishor would be part of that meeting, the leader said, “I don’t know.”

Meanwhile, Congress general secretary in charge of Punjab Shakeel Ahmad and AICC secretary for the state Harish Choudhry were in Chandigarh today to discuss the constitution of Punjab Congress Committee after Amarinder was appointed the state unit president.

There is still a view among some Punjab Congress leaders that Amarinder needs to team up more with them to face the upcoming challenge. “Since Capt became the Punjab unit president, he has not met district chiefs or block chiefs. The need of the hour is mass connect to counter AAP’s volunteer-based canvassing. Traditional means of canvassing alone won’t help this time. We need to think out of the box. That’s where we hope to get help from Prashant Kishor,” said a leader, who didn’t wish to be named.