Target poll booths, Chidambaram tells Karnataka Congress
Bengaluru, July 28 : Ahead of the general elections next year, senior Congress leader and former Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Saturday urged his party cadres in Karnataka to strengthen their presence in every poll booth.
"It is a booth-wise election ahead, which is why the party needs our people in every booth. We (Congress) must have enough people with feet on every booth," Chidambaram said addressing party members here.
The senior Congress leader was in the city to launch the party's "Shakti" app to strengthen the party cadres in the state by connecting them across each booth, village, town and district in Karnataka.
Of the 28 Lok Sabha constituencies in the southern state, the Congress had won nine seats, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) 17 and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) two in the 2014 general election.
The mobile phone-based project aims to build a direct link between the party's booth-level workers and its senior leadership. A party worker can enroll himself/herself on the platform by registering through their voter card number.
A few months ago, party President Rahul Gandhi had interacted with Congress workers in Rajasthan through the application, which has already been unveiled in Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Delhi.
Shakti will enable the booth-level workers of the party to interact with the local leadership on various issues, Chidambaram said.
Though the party lost in the May 12 Karnataka assembly election, Chidambaram claimed that Congress had higher vote percentage than of the BJP.
"Congress had 2 per cent advantage in the vote share in the election, as we got 38 per cent of the votes, while the BJP got 36 per cent," Chidambaram said.
In the election for the 224-member assembly, the BJP emerged as the single largest party winning 104 seats, Congress 79 and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) 37 seats, including one seat of its alliance partner Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), and two other seats -- one each won by an Independent and a regional outfit.
Two seats remain vacant in the state as Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy was elected from both Ramanagara and Channapatna assembly segments and Jamkhandi seat in Bagalkot district fell vacant after the legislator's death on May 28.
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We need to create system in which people's skills get their due: Rahul Gandhi
New Delhi (PTI): Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi Friday called for creating a system in which people's skills get their due and everyone's contribution is respected, as he shared a Diwali video in which he interacts with paint job workers and potters.
Posting the over nine-minute video which features him also having a conversation with his nephew Raihan Rajiv Vadra on YouTube, the former Congress chief said, "A memorable Diwali with special people - I celebrated this Diwali working with some painter brothers and making earthen diyas with a potter family."
"I saw their work closely, tried to learn their skills and understood their difficulties and problems. They don't go home. We celebrate festivals happily and to earn some money, they forget their village, city, family," Gandhi said.
"They make happiness from clay. While lighting up the festivals of others, are they able to live in light themselves? Those who build houses can hardly run their own houses!" he said.
Gandhi said Diwali means light that can remove the darkness of poverty and helplessness.
"We have to create such a system -- in which people's skills get their due and contribution is respected -- makes everyone's Diwali a happy one. I hope this Diwali brings prosperity, progress and love in the lives of all of you," he said.
In the video, Gandhi is seen working with labourers at the 10 Janpath residence and learning to paint walls along with his nephew. In the second part of the video, Gandhi goes to the house of a woman who makes earthen lamps with her five daughters.
Gandhi tries his hand at pottery and makes 'diyas', which he says he would give to his mother and sister.
Since his Kanyakumari to Kashmir Bharat Jodo Yatra and his Manipur to Mumbai Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, Gandhi has been interacting with a cross-section of people from mechanics and cobblers to labourers and bus drivers.
He often posts videos of his numerous interactions and highlights the plight of various sections of society.
