Following in the footsteps of their leaders,Congress in the city plan to do foot marches and keep the car rallies minimum. Several members have come up with innovating and effective methods like roaming stage,corner meetings,individual visits and so on. "Austerity and elections go hand-in-hand. In fact,strict adherence to the model code of conduct in itself is austerity. This time we will primarily focus on foot marches rather than conducting car rallies. Also,the win at centre has generated positive outlook towards the Congress government and that will hopefully help us reach out to masses without heavy campaigning," said Abhay Chhajed,city Congress chief. With the election commission's decision to make it mandatory to seek additional permission for the extra vehicles for rallies,the number of cars in a campaign is expected to be lesser than usual. "During Lok Sabha election campaign,we had to cover 120 wards in 15 days and that left us with no option but to use cars. This time,however,it is 10-20 wards to be covered in 15 days which comes to two wards a day. This we will mostly be covering on foot," added Chhajed. Ramesh Bagwe,the Congress- NCP candidate from Pune Cantonment is expecting almost 50 per cent cut in the election campaign expenditure. "We plan to travel by rickshaws and two wheelers in our wards and do away with car rallies. Majority of our voters live in slums so to reach out to masses,austerity is of utmost importance. Further,we plan to introduce roaming stage in our campaign,which will reduce the costs involved in construction of stages at different locations in the constituency. Terrace meetings,corner meetings,society get-togethers are also parts the campaign," said Bagwe. Vinayk Nimhan,the Congress-NCP candidate from Shivaji Nagar said he will focus on meeting individual voters. Meanwhile,ally NCP too is bitten by the austerity bug as they plan to avoid repetition of election rallies in the same area,erecting expensive stages for political speeches,huge power displays and serving exotic food to partymen.
