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Congress told to go in for State-specific poll campaigns

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Antony panel set up to study revitalisation of the Congress has recommended that the party have State-specific election campaigns and strategies.

The panel was set up after the party’s debacle in the Karnataka Assembly elections last month.

In Congress-ruled States the party should propagate its achievements, while in Opposition-ruled States highlight a ‘charge sheet’ of `failures’ of the incumbent government.

Local concerns and equations should be kept in mind while selecting candidates. Most importantly, the panel suggested that time-bound responsibilities be given to specific functionaries who should be accountable to the party.

AICC general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi told journalists here that the meeting of party leaders was about poll preparations. “The Lok Sabha elections were also discussed. The party has to get ready for polls and everybody has been asked to draw up programmes and submit them in the next meeting.”

He said neither the India-U.S. nuclear deal nor the inflation issue was discussed. The subject of declaration of a Chief Ministerial candidate in States also did not come up. These issues would be taken up at a ‘Chintan Shivir’ planned to be held after mid-July.

Chairman of the AICC Media Committee M. Veerappa Moily said the Congress president sought progress reports from the general secretaries on creating awareness about the Farmers’ Loan Waiver Scheme and on the benefits for scheduled tribes under the Tribal Act. They were asked to organise awareness camps and hold rallies on the issues.

Party general secretaries, Congress Working Committee members in charge of States and secretaries in charge of organisation attended the meeting that lasted two hours.

Conspicuous absentees were general secretaries Digvijay Singh, Margaret Alva and R.K. Dhawan.

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