Ivan D’Souza, MLC, said that the Congress decision to double the membership target, from 50 to 100 for every booth, had nothing to do with the BJP’s enrolment drive.
At a press conference here on Monday, Mr. D’Souza said the Congress wanted to bring new blood into the party and therefore party leaders decided to double the target to have a larger base. He denied that the BJP national president Amit Shah’s visit to Karnataka had anything to do with the decision.
Party workers go to every house urging the people to join the party after explaining its policies and programmes and new members are enrolled after winning over their hearts, he said.
Mr. D’Souza said that the Dakshina Kannada District Congress should have at least 1.75 lakh new members for the 1,750 polling booths. The target for the State is to have at least 50 lakh members by February 15 when the process for elections to the local bodies, gram panchayats, taluk panchayats and zilla panchayats, starts, he said.
The MLC said that the Revenue Department has recently issued a circular doing away with sworn affidavits or copies of documents attested by gazetted officers accompanying applications and added that self-attested documents would suffice.
Mr. D’ Souza said that the public’s plight to get affidavits and attestations were highlighted in the recently concluded Legislature Session. Minister for Revenue V. Srinivasa Prasad had announced in the Legislative Council that an order to do away with these formalities would be issued.
