New Congress campaign to focus on landmark laws

With 10 state assembly elections slated this year and Lok Sabha polls in 2009, Congress President Sonia Gandhi has asked her party to gear up its campaign machinery.

Accordingly, the party leaders today sent an aggressive campaign plan for her approval. Instead of the usual election-oriented campaign planks, this time the campaign has been aimed to be an issue-based one.

Rahul Gandhi too had emphasised the need for early and focused campaigns a few weeks back at an internal party meeting. Clearly, party veterans have taken a cue from here.

UPA government's three landmark pieces of legislation "" the Right to Information Act, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and the Scheduled Tribes and Other Forest Dwellers' Recognition of Forest Rights Act, pertaining to tribals, will be the three main areas of the new campaign plan of the party.

The Indo-US civil nuclear deal, although inconclusive so far, also gets a special mention as a UPA effort to tackle the power crisis in various states.

"We will highlight the RTI Act as a power which was confined only to MPs and MLAs, but has now been acquired by common people," said Digvijay Singh after the meeting of the newly-formed publicity and publication committee today.

The Uttar Pradesh Congress, under the leadership of Reeta Bahuguna, has already formed a task force to mobilise and educate common people on this issue.

The party has chalked out plans to start district-level conventions on the Tribals Act. These conventions will be organised in selected districts in the tribal-dominated areas, Singh said. In the conventions, the party will also facilitate distribution of patta (land-ownership) for the tribals under the new Act.

The meetings will be attended by state- and central-level leaders. "There is a need for an aggressive campaign. We want to highlight that the UPA government has something for every section of the society. We need to be focused and step up our propaganda machinery," said Veerappa Moilly.

Sonia Gandhi has, on many occasions, expressed her displeasure with the party machinery in the states for not adequately showcasing the achievements of the central government.

Party leaders have hinted that it is time to start the campaign. "It is the duty of our organisation to showcase the achievements of our party and the government. If we haven't communicated, it is our own fault," said Digvijay Singh.

The meeting also took into account that as many of the states were ruled by non-Congress parties, the Centre's programmes were not being highlighted. Instead, the states had claimed these as their own programmes.