GUWAHATI, Aug 24 - As part of its effort to revive its electoral fortunes in Assam in the run-up to next year�s Lok Sabha polls, the Congress party has now adopted a new strategy to take the organisation and its leadership closer to the workers and voters at the grassroots level by holding extended executive committee meetings in small towns and villages.
The grand old party will also conduct a mass contact programme titled �BJP Sarkar Hisab Diyak, Uttar Diyak� (BJP government, give account and answers).
All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary and in-charge for Assam and former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat will reach the State on August 26 on a five-day visit and preside over extended executive committee meetings at select places under the Guwahati and Dibrugarh Lok Sabha constituencies.
�Our party has set a target to win at least 11 out of the 14 Lok Sabha seats from Assam in the 2019 General Elections. So it has become very urgent to make all our workers and leaders from State level to the booth committee level more alert and proactive. Therefore, we have decided to do away with the practice of holding extended executive committee meetings in Guwahati and the district headquarters only, and instead, will hold them in smaller towns and rural areas,� a senior Congress party leader told The Assam Tribune today.
He said Rawat would personally attend such meetings at two places each under Guwahati and Dibrugarh Lok Sabha constituencies.
He will preside over meetings at Rani in Kamrup (Metro) district on August 26, at Hajo in Kamrup district on August 27, at Margherita in Tinsukia district on August 28 and at Lahowal in Dibrugarh district on August 29.
�In coming weeks and months, such meetings will be held in other small towns and villages across all 14 Lok Sabha constituencies of Assam. All presidents and secretaries of block and mandal Congress committees and all district level office-bearers of the party will be present. Later, in the second phase, we will hold meetings with block level workers,� said a Congress leader.
Rawat, meanwhile, will also hold a meeting on August 30 in Guwahati with all Congress party candidates from Assam who had contested the previous Lok Sabha elections in 2014.
The AICC general secretary will also visit two tea gardens in Dibrugarh and Tinsukia during his visit to meet tea workers and hold face-to-face discussions with them.
Meanwhile, as part of its plan to bolster the morale of its party workers and present itself as an alternative to the ruling BJP, the grand old party is launching the �BJP Sarkar Hisab Diyak, Uttar Diyak� programme.
�The theme of the programme is to expose all false promises, failures, corruption and anti-people policies of BJP governments at the Centre and in the State. We have prepared some talking points in this regard, which will be distributed on a large scale among our workers and public so that our workers can go to the people and create strong public opinion in favour of our party,� said a Congress leader.
He added, �Our target is to go to the masses, understand their issues, offer an alternative and create some positive impact among the common people about the Congress party.�
