The Congress is gearing up to counter the Opposition’s campaign against the party and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the corruption issue ahead of the Assembly elections in five states.
The Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Saturday had a meeting with the general secretaries and senior leaders of the party that lasted for nearly two hours, sources said.
Each general secretary and AICC incharge of different states gave their report (feedback) to the party chief. But Mr Rahul Gandhi was not present at the meeting. This was because he is not handling any state, clarified the party officials.
Mrs Gandhi wanted better coordination between the party and the Congress legislature party and thus asked the concerned to constitute a coordination committee in each state. She also told the general secretaries to see how the bloc committees can be activated.
The BJP and other regional parties have not been able to make corruption and price rise an issue outside Parliament through meetings. But insiders fear that this could be an issue in the coming Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam, Kerala and Puducherry. The Congress’ priority is to retain power in Assam and form a government in Kerala. Though the Congress has also intensified its attack on the BJP and the Sangh Parivar for their divisive policies and tactics, the saffron party is no where in all these states.
At the general secretaries’ meeting, Mrs Gandhi laid stress on austerity and simplicity asking PCCs and state governments to avoid “vulgar display of wealth” in public and private programmes.
Sources said she asked the general secretaries to launch a jan jagaran abhiyan (mass awakening campaign) on the Centre’s 16 flagship programmes across the country
The meeting also discussed about the formation of monitoring committees at district and block levels to oversee the implementation of these schemes.
Mrs Gandhi was also briefed about plans by various states to hold annual general bodies meetings of PCC. She was told that the Jan Jagaran Abhiyan as envisaged her has already began in few states while the rest will follow soon.
In the wake of complaints from party workers from states that ministers do not pay attention to them, Mrs Sonia Gandhi has written a letter to Union ministers asking them to visit party offices and meet workers whenever they travel outside Delhi.