With its eyes set on 2019 elections, the Congress party has come up with a new plan of appointing ‘booth-sahyogis’ as a part of its nationwide program of crowd funding and connecting with masses.
The program named, ‘Lok Sampark Abhiyan’ set to launch on October 2, the Congress will be appointing 10million ‘booth-sahyogis’ who will be participating in reaching out to masses and talking to them about their issues. The program aims to keep a special focus on the first time voters also.
The duration of this program is from October 2 to November 19 which is former PM Indira Gandhi’s birth anniversary. It will kick-start from Maharashtra’s Sevagram where the congress’ first committee meeting will be held. Ten sahyogis are said to be appointed for every polling booth and as many as 25000 households will be covered into it.
A circular which was issued by the organization secretary, Ashok Gehlot said, “As part of its new strategy for the 2019 general election, the Congress will appoint 10 million ‘booth sahyogis’ for a nationwide mass-contact and fund-collection program set to be launched on October 2, Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary. First-time voters will get a letter from Congress president Rahul Gandhi”.
The party has also launched an app called Shakti app which is supposed to monitor the ground level work by collecting the information of the voters and the donors.
The initiative is also aimed at collecting funds which will be later distributed for the center and the state elections. The Sahyogis will be going door to door with booklets with receipt slips for denominations of 50, 100, 500 and 1000. The cash limit will be Rs 2000 only which is as per the detailed guidelines in the light of the 2017 budget provision. Any amount above 2000 will be received by cheque or RTGS, and above 20,000 with permanent account number details.
The AICC general secretary in charge of each state will be monitoring the progress of the campaign. The appointment of sahyogis will be done by block Congress committees. The sahyogis will be provided with incentives and if they work well they might also get party ticket.
This program comes in the wake of similar initiative taken in Rajasthan’s ‘Mera Booth, Mera Gaurav’ which aimed at fund collection and a one-to-one connection with people. As per a senior leader of Congress, this program will be undertaken every year between January and February from 2020 onwards.