BENGALURU: FED up with the lackadaisical attitude of many legislators over the implementation of the ‘Mane Manege Congress’ initiative, AICC general secretary and state in-charge K C Venugopal spent most of Friday taking ministers and legislators to task. The programme was launched with much fanfare on September 23 in Mahadevapura. While there has been reasonable progress in the districts, Congress leaders or workers have not knocked on any doors in Bengaluru.
Venugopal was also upset with their attitude towards social media, with 10 ministers and 40 legislators giving it a miss. Venugopal has instructed all the legislators that they should personally visit the homes of people along with party workers for the mass contact programme. Realising that the progress has been little, Venugopal has extended the programme till October 20 from the earlier October 15.
A review meeting will be held in October-end. KPCC working president Dinesh Gundu Rao said that ministers and legislators had to been told to not only participate, but visit the homes of people themselves. “They have also been told to attend party programmes without fail as many of them have been going to their constituencies and not attending party programmes,” he said. Some of the legislators defended themselves blaming incessant rains, festivals and holidays, for their non-participation in the campaign.
Social media presence
Despite a circular from AICC six months ago, many Congress leaders have failed to even open accounts on social media platforms, forget interacting on it. A list of 10 ministers and 40 MLAs were given to Venugopal saying that they still had not opened accounts. Some of them complained that they were not comfortable with technology and did not understand social media. Venugopal rebuffed these explanations and told them to open accounts immediately and hire someone to operate these accounts. Ministers have been strictly told to post regularly about their departments, districts and various government issues and on political developments. Dinesh also said that since Congress was moving from mass-based party towards a cadre-based party, it will take a little time to get organised.
“There is no dearth of achievements, but the campaigning is a little slow in some places. But we will pick it up soon. The workers are also more confident now and feel they can give fitting reply to whatever crazy things the BJP can come up with,” he added. Sources said that Minister Umashree came under fire from various quarters. While Umashree does not have any social media presence despite holding two portfolios, Congress workers have also complained against her for not showing any interest in any party programmes. Venugopal has also sought an action plan for the next six months from all the morchas and ideas on how they plan to implement it.