Gujarat Congress plans ‘parikrama’ of 7 districts to draft ‘people’s manifesto’

NEW DELHI: The Gujarat Congress is planning a ‘parikrama’ of over seven major districts of Gujarat to engage various stakeholders in discussions on the raging economic and political issues to ‘collect inputs from the people at the grassroots” to frame the party’s election manifesto.

Sources said the Gujarat Congress’ manifesto committee, headed by senior party leader Madhusudan Mistry, is slated to make trips to Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Rajkot, Surat, Jamnagar, Vadodara and Kheda. The committee will hold public discussions with farmers, traders, businessmen, youth, women and representatives of various communities to “seek their views for an alternative Congress agenda for governance”, a party leader privy to the plan said. These “fact-finding trips” are being planned after November 7.

“These interactions are particularly designed to ensure that the Congress election manifesto is framed with direct inputs from people on their issues so that we place before the electorate a people’s manifesto,” said a party leader. The post-demonetisation/GST issues faced by traders, farm distress, unemployment and homelessness will be major areas of Congress’ interactions with the audience.

The idea to promise EBC (economically backward class) quota for the poor among the general category — in addition to the existing OBC (other backward class) quota — which the party is planning to propose as a compromise formula for Patels’ demand for including them in OBC, could also figure in the discussions.

In an interview to ET, AICC general secretary in-charge of Gujarat, Ashok Gehlot, said Congress could consider, among other things, offering monthly unemployment allowance for educated unemployed youth, debt waiver for farmers, homes to the homeless and EBC quota.