KOCHI: Not to be left behind by the CPM and BJP who have already started preparing for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress party is also planning to catch up with a slew of programmes to expand their people-connect ahead of the polls.
Leaders will visit all houses in the campaign which will commence on January 26. The programme assumes significance as the party leaders are reaching out to the people to hear their voices at a time the BJP and CPM have already started house visit programmes, a congress leader said.
“In the first phase, the door-to-door campaign will be held from February 1 to 20. The partymen will distribute pamphlets featuring the failures of Union and state governments and collect funds as part of the Rs 138 challenge launched by the KPCC on the 138th foundation day of the party. The padayatra is the next phase of the campaign and it will be conducted across the state. The padayatra will take three to four days to cover the mandalams,” said V T Balram, state Congress vice-president.
The party leaders will go door-to-door with Rahul Gandhi’s message. The main objective of this campaign is to strengthen the 25,000 booth committees of the party in the state. “Hath se Hath Jodo Yatra is a three- month-long programme. The padayatras as part of the programme will cover all the polling booths in the state,” said Pazhakulam Madhu, KPCC general secretary and the convener of the campaign.
For the smooth conduct of the padayatra,560 leaders, that is two leaders from each block committee, have been entrusted for conducting the padayatra at the mandalam levels. A squad comprising four to five party cadres will take out the door-to-door campaign.
A massive ‘Mahila rally’ with one lakh women workers will also be held at Thiruvananthapuram as part of the programme. AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi will address the rally. Another rally named ‘Maha rally’ also will be organised in Kochi or Kozhikode. However, party leaders said that the dates of these rallies have not been finalised yet.