Notwithstanding the BJP’s hi-tech SMS and phone campaigning, the Congress has decided to garner support through personal contact with different segments of the society — women, youth, industry and trading community, rural areas and tribal belts. Getting its act together, the party has drawn up elaborate lists even to devise a strategy to counter the BJP and its allies even for TV programmes and debates.To take on the BJP’s glib talkers like Pramod Mahajan and Arun Jaitley, the Congress has decided to put forth specialised teams for different subjects. Talking reforms and economy will be Dr Manmohan Singh and Pranab Mukherjee with support from Prithviraj Chauhan and Priyaranjan Dash Munshi while legal issues will be debated by Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi and H.R. Bharadwaj. Frontrunners for talks on political issues will be Ambika Soni, Ahmed Patel, Salman Khursheed and Ghulam Nabi Azad.Women’s issues will be taken up by Renuka Chowdhury, Margaret Alva, Jayanti Natarajan, Rajni Patel and Girija Vyas. NSUI and Youth Congress leaders have been entrusted with addressing students in universities to swing the votes from Young India.Even slogans have been devised to impress different segments —while the young voters will hear more of Disha 2004 shiksha aur rozgaar, women will hear a lot more of mahila sashaktikaran or ‘‘Empowering Women’’.Says Jairam Ramesh: ‘‘The only one way to campaign during elections is to go to the people and this is precisely what we are planning to do. Though we have placed some newspaper and magazine ad campaigns, these have limited value. So the political mobilisation will be done by 25 senior leaders and 25 young leaders — in the age group of 26 to 30 — and public meetings at 45 centres.’’
