PUDUCHERRY: AICC secretary in-charge of Puducherry, G Chinna Reddy on Saturday set a target to win in 20 constituencies in the Union Territory out of a total of 30 constituencies, while exhorting the party cadres to strive hard to ensure a Congress government in the Union Territory after the 2016 Assembly elections.
Addressing the PCC meeting, Reddy, while expressing concern over three party MLAs (C Jayakumar, P N R Thirumurugan and Malladi Krishna Rao) distancing themselves from the party, said that only E Valsaraj had communicated his inability to attend the meeting as he had undergone bypass surgery.
Stating that the party should draw a road map to achieve victory in the elections, he advised the party cadre to capitalise on the failure of the AINRC government in fulfilling the assurances, failure to pay salaries, the law and order issues, decline in plan allocation and then reach it out to the people. “If people feel it, then only they will vote for us,” said Chinna Reddy. The party should also utilise the wane in Modi wave in the context of corruption charges against Central Ministers and Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled States, he said. Already there was an ‘overwhelming’ support for the party in Thiruchy, where despite heavy downpour, more than one lakh people participated in the meeting addressed by Rahul Gandhi and this needs to be evoked in Puducherry.
Stating that the block-level and booth-level committees of the party need to be strengthened, he said that the party would concentrate in constituting the block level units of Bahour and Yanam. While the Bahour block level unit was not constituted after former MLA R Radhakrishnan switched to AINRC to be elected as Lok Sabha member, the Yanam block Congress members resigned earlier this month (they are supporters of Malladi Krishna Rao who joined AINRC).
He also advised the members for vigorous membership drive to fulfil the target of achieving 50,000 membership. At present only 35,000 could be enrolled and party members should strive to enrol the remaining 15,000 by August, before the AICC session in September.
Meanwhile, AICC general secretary and former Union minister V Narayansamy on Saturday said that the party has no place for dissidents. Those who work for the party will be rewarded with posts and positions in the party, he said. The party will announce candidates three months ahead of the poll, said Leader of the Opposition V Vaithilingam and added that block-level units of the party can forward three to four names to the PCC for consideration. He also advised them to give their opinion on the strategies to be adopted for facing the election.
New PCC Chief, A Namassivayam, tried to rejuvenate the party by stating that Congress is not a spent force, but it’s like a banyan tree, which has shed its leaves and will soon blossom.
MLA K Lakshminarayanan, advised the cadres to project the growing unemployment, while reaching out to people.