BENGALURU: To strengthen the party at the booth level by connecting with its workers, the Congress on Saturday launched project ‘Shakti’ in Bengaluru. According to the party, the initiative launched ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections will help leaders connect with workers and get their feedback on any issue. To enrol, they have to send an SMS to 7045006100 with their voter identity card number and the party will establish two-way communication with them.
Speaking to mediapersons after launching the initiative, former Union minister P Chidambaram said the BJP is talking about making Congress-mutka Bharat, but it will not succeed. “Congress’ aim is to make BJP-mukta Bharat,” he said.
“The Congress is growing steadily and the party is strong in Karnataka. The party had got 38 per cent votes, which is 2 per cent more than the BJP’s vote share. It is important for us to focus on strengthening the party at booth level and ‘Shakti’ project will help to do that,” he said, admitting that the party is weak in Coastal Karnataka region.
KPCC president Dinesh Gundu Rao said the project will revolutionise the way Congress reached out to its grassroot level workers. All party workers have been asked to enrol for the project.Rao said preparations for Lok Sabha polls will be taken up on war-footing and the new initiative will help strengthen the party at the booth level. “It will also help us in appointment of district and taluk presidents of the party by directly getting feedback from our workers,” he said.
Praveen Chakravarthi, Chairman AICC Data Analysis Department, said weakness at booth level organisation resulted in the party not winning more seats in the recent assembly polls in Karnataka and Gujarat.
He added that all enrolled members will directly get details about party activities and a recorded call from Congress President Rahul Gandhi. AICC will directly be in contact with the workers and details will be given to state units. “This will help us analyse the party’s strengths and weaknesses,” he said.
Shakti is a nationwide initiative that was launched in Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan and other states.