CHENNAI: The Congress' Tamil Nadu unit has been struggling to enrol its members digitally because it doesn’t have enough grassroots-level cadre, and the party’s mobile app has glitches. Since only a few lakh members were enrolled in the State before the March 31 deadline, the party leadership has now extended it by two weeks, and told the State unit to register more members.
Last November, the party announced that all its members would be enrolled digitally through a mobile app, but the enrolment drive began only in the first week of March. As for why only a few people were enrolled, a district president of the party said, "We have to go door-to-door to verify each member, but we don’t have enough active cadre in all places to do this."
GK Muralidharan, a state general secretary of the party, blamed technical glitches in the app. "There are technical issues and practical difficulties in verifying members on the app. Because of this, cadre can’t enrol members and we can’t tap our actual strength," he said.
Some party leaders said such problems exist in most parts of the country, but they haven't been brought to the notice of the top leadership. "Extending the deadline by two weeks is not the solution," said a State-level functionary of the Congress.
Plagued by glitches in app & dearth of cadre
Congress had to extend its March 31 deadline for digital enrolment since only a few lakh people were enrolled as the app has glitches and there aren’t enough grassroots-level cadre