Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday approved four crucial internal committees for the upcoming Delhi Assembly polls even as some of its leaders candidly admitted that it was ‘a little early to begin campaigning’.
Many prominent leaders including ex-Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and some young faces from its students’ wing, the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), figure on these.
While the Pradesh Election Committee will be chaired by the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) president, Arvinder Singh Lovely, former Power Minister Haroon Yusuf, All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Janardan Dwivedi and Ajay Maken and Ms. Dikshit were the other names on the list.
The publicity committee, to be chaired by Mr. Yusuf, would also consist of young leaders such as Amrita Dhawan and Ragini Nayak credited with carrying the NSUI to successive victories in the Delhi University Students' Union (DUSU) polls in the mid-2000s.
The party's manifesto committee would be chaired by former Delhi Health Minister Dr. A.K. Walia. His former Cabinet colleagues Kiran Walia and Ramakant Goswami, besides former Union Minster Krishna Tirath have also been appointed members of the committee.
“The elections are around the corner, true, but now is still not the time to begin campaigning in a full-fledged manner,” a senior leader said.
“We are still in the process of gathering information about poll issues through meetings but when we begin, we will directly target the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) propaganda to woo the upper middle-class with evidence of the infrastructure development during the Congress regime,” the leader added.
Though the party's campaign was still at a nascent stage, party sources said the Capital's flyovers – including the still under expansion Barapullah flyover – would figure prominently on its pitch to claim higher ground.
“You will soon see posters declaring the expansion of the city's educational sector – 120 colleges were constructed during our rule under the Indraprastha (IP) University – and schemes such as 'Ladli' and widows' pension to counter the AAP's propaganda which no longer talks of the Lokpal or black money but sops,” the leader added.
