Cong may launch 3-phase poll campaign by Feb end

New Delhi: The main Opposition Congress has firmed up plans to unleash an agg-ressive three-phased multimedia election camp-aign across the nation from the end of this month, where the prime focus will be on the “Minimum Income Guarantee” scheme, which party chief Rahul Gandhi had hinted at unveiling if voted to power in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls.

With the schedule for the general elections for 2019 likely to be announced in the first week of March, top party sources said that the underlying message of the entire campaign will be that “Congress delivers what it promises.”

The first phase of the campaign will focus on promises made by the BJP in the run-up to 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

The second phase will highlight in detail that how many of those promises were actually fulfilled, while the third phase will focus on regional issues related to all states, sources added.

In short, the Congress will clearly aim to create a comparative study of the BJP-led NDA government’s long list of promises made in 2014 and their actual fulfilment.

They informed that details of Congress’ Lok Sabha election campaign were finalised during a recent meeting of the party’s Lok Sabha election campaign committee which is headed by former minister and Rajya Sabha MP Anand Sharma.

All the states in-charge of media cells have been directed to ensure that the campaign is no less than a full fledged media blitzkrieg, lavishly mou-nted across all media — radio, television, social networking sites and even live streaming platforms, sources privy to developments said.

Though the party’s manifesto is yet to be finalised, the aim of the entire campaign would be to make it available (on its finalisation) across every household in the country.

While the details of the minimum income guarantee scheme are yet to be made available, party sources said that they would be explained in the manifesto.

This newspaper had exclusively reported on February 19 that the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party’s highest decision making body is likely to discuss some broad aspects which could be later included in the manifesto, during its meeting scheduled to be held in Ahmedabad on February 28.

Party sources further informed that all media managers have been asked to coordinate with states so that the election campaign runs in perfect synchronisation and when star campaigners travel to various states, they get prominent display across all media.