NEW DELHI: The Congress, perhaps buoyed by the protests against the Lakhimpur-Kheri incident in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, is learnt to have started preparing new electoral strategies in all upcoming elections, starting with by-elections for two Assembly seats in Bihar. Some of these plans seem to be revolving around new entrants Kanhaiya Kumar, Jignesh Mevani and Hardik Patel who are expected to attack BJP on issues of public interest.
Party insiders said the new electoral strategies will be tested in Bihar where by-elections are due on October 30. Star campaigners Kanhaiya, Mevani and Patel will leave no stone unturned to make things difficult for the ruling JD(U) and RJD, which is an ally in the proposed grand alliance at the national level.
Actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha, former cricketer Kriti Azad, bureaucrat-turned-politician and former LS speaker Meira Kumar and other leaders will also be roped in.
“Kanhaiya, Jignesh and Hardik have been assigned the task of bluntly and logically expose the wrong deeds, policies and failures of the NDA government. They are crowd pullers,” said a senior Congress leader preferring anonymity. If the new electioneering model yields results, the same model will be used in UP and other states in 2022.
The party also wants to highlight its past deeds, including its role in Bangladesh’s liberation war. A exhibition of photographs on this was held at AICC headquarters recently.
“It was aimed at showing how our government had acted to liberate Bangladesh and how hapless the Modi government is before China’s transgressions,” said Suman Kumar, a Congress leader. The party has also in principle decided not to involve interim national president Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Rahul Gandhi in electioneering in Bihar and other states.