“Aap ka paisa aap ke haath” is going to be the slogan of the Congress party, which is approaching different sections of society through the Centre’s flagship programmes ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
The Congress party has also decided to call a meeting of district Congress committee chiefs across the country in New Delhi soon. This meeting will be addressed by AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi.
The Congress is gearing up for the general election. After constituting four major committees — election coordination committee, pre-poll alliances sub-group, manifesto and government programmes’ sub-group and communications and publicity sub-group — it has sent observers to different states to assess the ground situation and identify candidates.
A member of the Congress think tank and AICC official on Tuesday said the party would fight the next general election in alliance with the secular parties. “There will be a UPA 3,” he said. He said “no” to a question on whether the Congress would ally with the Samajwadi Party and the BSP in Uttar Pradesh.
The Congress also will not ally with the Biju Janata Dal in Orissa because there the contest is between the two parties. But it has to make pre-poll alliances in key states like West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Maharashtra, and perhaps Andhra Pradesh. While the DMK and Nationalist Congress Party are part of the UPA and have been sharing power at the Centre, the party will have to forge a pre-poll alliance with either the Left or the Trinamul Congress in West Bengal and the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Lok Janshakti Party in Bihar.
In the 2004 Lok Sabha election, the Congress had allied with the Telangana Rashtra Samiti. In Uttar Pradesh the RLD, led by Mr Ajit Singh, could remain with the Congress. The Congress plans to make space among youth, women, the unorganised sectors, urban and rural poor and senior citizens through the government’s flagship programmes, besides the backward castes and minorities.
Finance minister P. Chidambaram on Tuesday described the direct cash transfer scheme as a “game-changer” but dismissed suggestions that the roll-out hinted at mid-term polls.