Congress all set to launch its Punjab poll campaign centred around Amarinder Singh

NEW DELHI: Singed by successive electoral defeats, Congress has readied a 200-day road map in the run-up to Punjab Assembly elections in early 2017. Political strategist Prashant Kishor has laid down the basics for campaign strategy and booth management – a tight campaign centred around Captain Amarinder Singh, divide Punjab in six segments and entrust each Captain detractor with one segment and identify the real Congress worker right till the village level.
Congress is all set to launch this campaign formally on June 6. Kishor has concentrated the entire campaign on Singh trying to ensure it is a Badals vs Captain fight.

According to sources, Singh’s 200-day campaign would touch all the 117 Assembly segments of Punjab and he would spend more time in Badal’s family boroughs. Punjab would be divided into six regions – each region roughly including 20 Assembly segments.

One region would be entrusted to a known Singh detractor. A senior Congress leader told ET, “This would ensure that there is no dissent.” Senior leaders like Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, former state unit chief Partap Singh Bajwa, state unit senior vice-president Lal Singh and senior leader Raj Kumar Verka are likely to be given one segment each.

The leaders would head a crack team with representation from all communities like Sikhs, women, scheduled castes and youth. These teams would hold 20 meetings in each constituency in the region and campaign extensively. According to sources, Punjab Congress’ newlyconstituted state unit would meet and finalise the campaign strategy.

“Coffee with Captain” – an initiative managed by Kishor’s team from Indian Political Action Committee (IPAC) which connects Singh with the masses – would be a major part of the strategy.

The second leg of this programme would be kickstarted from next week. One of the biggest part of the strategy is booth management. Kishor’s team has already conducted surveys in the state to determine the demographic profile of each constituency. The surveys have thrown up important sub-castes in each constituency and the issues that need to be raised in public meetings.

A brief is prepared for each constituency and how the Congress needs to position itself. “There are specific issues of sub-castes in certain constituencies.

These are being included in the briefs so that Congress candidates and campaigners can raise them,” said a leader closely associated with campaign strategy.

There are 39 sub-castes in Punjab. While Manpreet Badal’s People’s Party of Punjab has merged with Congress, Singh has been asked to send feelers to other local parties and forge an alliance.