Cong hunts for campaign slogans to win over voters

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 25

Conscious of communications being its Achilles Heel, the Congress has begun hunting for campaign slogans that will resonate with the masses.

The party’s publicity committee has formed sub-groups to seek ground-level feedback on issues agitating the youth, women, farmers and small industrialists. Each committee member has been asked to look at a specific section, engage it through surveys and report back on what they wanted to be voiced.

“The idea is to hunt for slogans that will resonate with the people rather than keep saying what one wants,” said a Congress leader who attended the yesterday’s meeting of the panel which former minister Anand Sharma chairs. The Congress is aiming to prepare the first draft on LS poll communication strategy before October 30 but is still hunting for the overarching theme for the General Election.

Asked if Rafale would continue to remain at the centre of the Congress campaign, as it appears today, a leader said Rafale would remain a major campaign plank with party chief Rahul Gandhi successfully building a narrative of “corruption” around Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is “on the defensive”.

Congress’ Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal also said today that Rafale was a huge political issue ahead of 2019 polls.

“We want the PM to answer Rafale queries. If he does not answer, we will figure out what to do once the 2019 Lok Sabha election is over. We are in the court of people and in courts, thefts are always called out,” Sibal said.

The Tribune has learnt the Congress publicity panel for LS polls discussed the BJP’s latest attempt to call the Opposition’s Rafale deal offensive an “international conspiracy with specific reference to Pakistan.”