The Congress announced on Saturday the list of candidates for the Meghalaya and Tripura Assembly elections to be held in February.
In Karnataka, senior leader Veerappa Moily had been asked to prepare the draft manifesto after interacting with various sections of the party.
The party released the names of 57 candidates for Meghalaya, where voting will take place for 60 seats on February 27.
Chief Minister Mukul Sangma will be contesting two seats.
In Tripura, where elections would be held on February 18, the party released names for 56 of the 60 seats.
The party also named candidates for two byelections in Madhya Pradesh and a committee was formed to choose candidate for a byelection in Odisha.
But Karnataka was the big battle State for the party where it is currently in power and the BJP is seeking to make a comeback. Congress president Rahul Gandhi had asked party leaders to prepare a “people’s manifesto” for the State after taking feedback from different sections of society.
Moily on a tour
Party leaders said Mr. Moily had undertaken a tour of all the four regions — Bombay Karnataka, Hyderabad Karnataka, Old Mysore and Coastal Karnataka — of the State to have wider consultations.
Sources said the manifesto would focus on creating jobs, tackling issues faced by farmers and problems faced by labourers and ensuring social justice.
Mr. Moily had been holding meetings with different groups such as the Kisan Morcha (farmers association), associations of doctors and lawyers and others to elicit their expectations from the government.
The Congress had undertaken a similar exercise ahead of the Gujarat elections when technocrat Sam Pitroda held interactions in Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Jamnagar and Rajkot before giving inputs to the party on issues that people had spoken about.
Speaking to The Hindu , Congress Working Committee member B.K. Hariprasad, who belongs to Karnataka, said, “The manifesto committee is meeting with different sections to get a sense of people’s expectation and incorporate them in our manifesto.”
The party will focus on popular schemes such as Ksheer Bhagya that offered free milk to children from economically weaker families, Anna Bhagya that offered rice and the Indira canteen.
Prestige battle
The election schedule for the 224-member Karnataka Assembly is yet to be announced but it is building up as a prestige battle. While BJP chief Amit Shah has already been touring the State, Mr. Gandhi would kick-off the party’s campaign with a three-day tour beginning on February 10.
Karnataka is expected to witness a triangular contest with the Deve Gowda-led Janata Dal (Secular) also in the fray. The party is yet to spell out its strategy.
