JULY 22- Move over the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act, Direct Benefit Transfer scheme, food security and land acquisition law. The 4Ms – middle class, minorities, media and Modi – are other segments on the radar of Congress’s war room boys who steer the party strategies in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
Sources said top party leaders have taken note of the BJP’s “division of labour” agenda.
It’s believed that while a section of BJP leaders led by Amit Shah and hardliners work to polarise the voters on communal lines, Modi and a few others try to reach out to the middle-class and corporates by talking about development.
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The Congress strategists are now reworking the party’s poll agenda. Though the party has been focusing on middle-class voters and Muslim community for a while now, it has belatedly woken up to the need for an effective media management to checkmate Modi who is relishing media limelight.
For the first time, in a bid to tone up the party’s communication strategy in states and propagate the UPA’s achievements among the masses, the Congress leadership has organised a two-day media conclave which is scheduled to start on Monday.
Union ministers P. Chidambaram, Anand Sharma, Jairam Ramesh, Shashi Tharoor and Manish Tewari will address key sessions of the two-day programme that will be inaugurated by vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
The party will also unveil its social platform ‘Khidki’ to around 200 spokespersons who will get lessons on dos and don’ts of electronic media, an AICC statement said.
There is a feeling that excessive emphasis on aam admi and poverty alleviation programmes have to be balanced to attract the middle- class, which is getting alienated from the party. The Congress had won 75-odd Lok Sabha seats – mostly urban and semiurban constituencies – in 2009.
Till a fortnight ago, the Congress leadership was divided on its plan to take on a “Modi-fied” BJP. A section of senior leaders was of the view that the party should not give undue attention to him. However, with BJP president Rajnath Singh making it clear that Modi is “the leader” of the saffron party, AICC mandarins now working on a plan: neutralising Modi and wooing the urban middle class, besides bolstering its media management and keeping the minorities in good humour.
INDIA TODAY
