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Can Congress’ micromanagement projects that worked in Rajasthan assembly elections help in LS polls?
The six projects started by Congress in Rajasthan are Sangthan Shashaktikaran, its sequel Mitr Samnvayak, Mera Booth Mera Gaurav, Shakti project, booth management training to over 40,000 workers and war room concept.
The Congress’s success in the 2018 assembly polls came after half a dozen innovations and pilot projects in the state, believe party leaders.
The six projects started by Congress in Rajasthan are Sangthan Shashaktikaran, its sequel Mitr Samnvayak, Mera Booth Mera Gaurav, Shakti project, booth management training to over 40,000 workers and war room concept.
Getting innovative, the grand old party came out with ‘sangthan shashaktikaran’ (organisational strengthening) programme in June 2017 under which a dialogue was established with former state and district office bearers of the parent and frontal organisations since 1985. It was kind of an alumni programme.
This programme had a second phase — ‘Mitr Samnvayak’ — in which friend coordinators were appointed at block, booth and district level. These coordinators collected data, helped in completing organisation structure and identification of probable candidates.
Then in 2018, came the ‘Mera Booth Mera Gaurav’ (MBMG) programme before the state assembly elections which aimed at strengthening booth management and connecting with the people at the last mile.
The party then launched ‘Shakti’ app, a move to bridge and develop communication between Rahul Gandhi and the party’s booth-level functionaries. At present, over 10 lakh workers are connected through the app. The idea behind was to prepare an authentic database and connect with workers which will help the party in preparing a political road map.
AICC general secretary Avinash Pande, who spearheaded all the programmes in the state, said, “Prior to starting Shakti in Rajasthan, a data of 30 lakh workers was prepared of which 19 lakh were active workers. Shakti not just helped in building two-way communication but also in feedback and candidate selection.”
Macro-level booth management training to over 40,000 workers in phases was conducted, which provided effective booth management at each booth in the state.
The party also came up with a war room setup for the first time before last assembly election and it was also in place during this Lok Sabha polls. “The war room was established for systematic working, where all trained workers and team of experts and leaders were connected. Before that, a mini war room comprising a researcher, a social media expert, a data analyst, an observer among others were in place at all the 25 LS seats,” said Pande.
Before the general elections this year, banking on the Nyunatam Aay Yojana (NYAY) as game changer, the party gave a personal touch. Around 20 lakh letters signed by Rahul Gandhi, giving details of the scheme, were sent to party workers.
“Congress is a large organisation and efforts were made to activate and train our workers in the state for better prospects,” said Pande.
State Congress vice-president (organisation) Mumtaz Massih said Pande started the MBMG programme under which dialogue was established with booth workers across the state. Than the training program covering over 40,000 workers. “For the first time, a war room was established in Rajasthan along with a control room, which used to be there earlier through war room. It was connected with the war room in New Delhi and a system was developed where the trained 40,000 worker were connected. Effective monitoring, feedback, irregularities at booths, issues at electronic voting machines etc were taken and resolved,” Massih said.
Massih, who was the state coordinator of the programmes, said all these programmes were started from Rajasthan and hopefully will be expanded in other states. “The war room at state level came as a benefit as it connected the party from state to booth level. These initiatives were made to ensure micromanagement,” Massih added.
Political analysts Narayan Bareth said such initiatives can be supplementary exercises but cannot be mainstream act as it seems cosmetic. These programmes can be for marketing but cannot build a connection, and for that the way of Mahatama Gandhi should be adopted: Service and struggle. For a political worker, these two things can help in creating space in the society. “Congress requires a programme which can serve and has a potential of struggle. If marketing is the base then their rival (BJP) is far ahead. Congress should remember that they are the oldest party and people have high expectations or else such exercise will not prove to be beneficial,” he said.
