Rahul Gandhi ropes in Indian Youth Congress for doorstep war

New Delhi: In its hey days, the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) was considered to be the backbone of the organisational strength of the Congress. Under Rahul Gandhi’s stewardship, the Grand Old Party is now trying to regain its brawn lost in the 2014 Modi wave by engaging the youth cadre to reach out to voters through some old-school door-to-door campaigning which involves distribution of pamphlets.

Beginning with the four states of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Madhya Pradesh, which went to polls late last year, the IYC has begun a series of state-specific campaigns. The thrust is on distribution of pamphlets in local languages to raise both national and state issues. The campaigns are likely to peak with the coming Lok Sabha elections around May.

At the national level, the focus is on Rafale jet deal and the Congress slogan of “chowkidar chor hai” and posing 10 questions raised to Prime Minister Modi on issues like jobs, demonetisation, GST and farm loans.

Then there are the “Chalo panchayat” and “Chalo ward” campaigns where separate pamphlets — “Rozgar card” and “Kisan card” — are distributed for showcasing Congress’ promises for job-seekers and farmers if voted to power.

These two core campaigns have been launched in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Kerala. These will be implemented in most states with a special focus on BJP-ruled states.

Other programmes include campaigns on gender equality, giving rights to the marginalised and making first-time voters aware of key issues in elections.

One of the themes being pursued to specially target the first-time voters is “Soch se soch ki Ladai’ or the battle of ideologies — a campaign around the fight between Congress’ “progressive” ideology and BJP’s so-called divisive agenda. Apart from distributing pamphlets, a total of 32 events have been held on this issue till now.

Congress sources said that the pamphlets are distributed from door-to-door and an app is used to track cadres to ensure the task is performed properly.

“We also generate daily reports and share transparently,” a Youth Congress leader who is part of the ongoing campaign told this newspaper.