The Congress party has just about 12 months before the Lok Sabha polls are announced in 2024. It’s high time for the party to gear up and start preparing for the upcoming elections. With BJP’s stronghold in most states, the INC needs to work hard to strengthen its presence on the ground level.
In recent years, social media has become the go-to platform for political parties to connect with the masses. However, it’s not enough to just trend on social media. The real challenge is to take the message to the people and build a strong grassroots network. Feedback should be taken from the people regarding their grievances. Many people have their grievances which are not heard by the local councillors and gram pradhans. All Congress workers should be assigned the responsibility of a booth to reach out to people and find such issues which are affecting the people at the micro-level. Overall the party should be able to understand the pulse of the public and become the representative of the ‘janta’ by connecting with the emotions of the people.
It is time to hit the ground running and not wait for the next round of the Bharat Jodo Yatra. They need to reach out to people in every nook and corner of the country and listen to their concerns. The party should focus on building a strong connection with the youth, women, farmers, and the marginalized sections of society.
The INC also needs to work on its internal structure and address issues related to leadership, factionalism, and lack of unity. The party needs to present a strong and united front to the voters. There should be clarity about who the local leaders are and what is their role within the party. Politics all over the world is becoming highly personality centric. There should not multiple leadership poles that can confuse the public. The face of the party at the booth level, block level, Vidhan Sabha level and Lok Sabha level should be clear to the public.
The upcoming Lok Sabha 2024 elections are crucial for the INC as they have been out of power at the Centre for over nine years. The party needs to be poll-ready and start working on a strategy to win the elections. In conclusion, the INC needs to take a multi-pronged approach to prepare for the LS’24 elections. They need to focus on building a strong grassroots network, connecting with the masses, working on their internal structure, and presenting a united front to the voters. The time to act is now, and the party cannot afford to wait any longer.
If Congress wants to give a surprise in the upcoming national elections, mass contact programmes and continuous interaction with the public should be the foundational strategy of the party. It is next to impossible to fight the BJP with the financial resources they possess and the corporate media is not expected to go against the ruling party. In such a scenario the Congress party should not try to fight the BJP on their battlefield. The US was not defeated in the Vietnam War due to a lack of weapons or manpower. In fact, the United States was far superior to the North Vietnamese forces. It was defeated because the North Vietnamese forces drew the US military into the jungles where they could unleash guerrilla warfare techniques and bleed the US Army with thousand cuts.
The Congress party also needs to focus on their own strengths and stop trying to take on the BJP where they are surely going to be suppressed by the superior election machinery of the BJP. Even in such a weak state one Congress sympathizer can every nook and corner of the country. Such a pan-India presence is the main strength of the party.
