Keen to avoid 2019 error, Congress pushing poll manifesto hard

Why NYAY didn’t click in 2019?

In 2019, with Rahul Gandhi as the Congress president, the party had promised a minimum monthly income guarantee – NYAY – of ₹6,000 per person. The party was sure that NYAY would resonate with an electorate reeling under the double whammy of rising prices and unemployment. The party’s poll slogan – Ab Hoga Nyay – too was crafted around the income guarantee promise.

As the 2019 Lok Sabha poll campaign gained momentum, the Congress’s NYAY push, however, got lost in the cacophonous aftermath of the Balakot airstrike. Rahul’s own error of pivoting his entire poll-time broadside against Prime Minister Modi on the controversial Rafale deal inspired ‘Chowkidaar Chor Hai’ slogan also took the party’s focus away from NYAY.

NYAY in rebottled form

Five years on, the Congress has broadened the ambit of its justice plank; using NYAY as an overarching theme within which promises of social, economic, gender and political justice have all been incorporated. Through the course of the Manipur to Maharashtra Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra (BJNY), Rahul and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge promised to deliver to the electorate ‘Paanch Nyay’ if the INDIA bloc is voted to power.

The Congress leadership believes that its 25 Guarantees, which include among others, promises of conducting a socio-economic caste census, filling up 30 lakh vacancies in government jobs, removing the 50 per cent cap on reservations, enacting a Right to Apprenticeship law with a guaranteed stipend to beneficiaries of ₹1lakh per annum, financial aid of ₹1lakh per annum to one woman per poor household and enacting legislations for Minimum Support Price (MSP), Right to Health and urban employment guarantee law, can collectively swerve public sentiment against the BJP in an admittedly difficult election for the party.

Prudent use of limited poll resources

The challenge for the Congress now is to ensure that unlike the 2019 polls, its narrative for the upcoming seven-phase elections that start on April 19 remains tethered to the alternative political and administrative vision the party has offered through its ‘Nyay Patra’ to take on the BJP. Battling a crippling crunch of funds, the Congress realises it neither has the luxury of resources to widely disseminate information about its manifesto nor a mainstream media that is willing to give the party’s message the same degree of exposure it eagerly offers the BJP.

Sources in the Congress’s media and publicity department told The Federal that the party has, thus, been strategising to use the few dissemination tools it has at its command to their optimum. First in this series of measures was the party’s move to ensure that its low-key manifesto release in Delhi, on April 5, was followed up the very next day with ‘Nyay Patra’ launch mega rallies in Jaipur, Rajasthan and Hyderabad, Telangana. The Jaipur rally was addressed by Kharge, former Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi while Rahul launched the party manifesto at the rally in Hyderabad.

All hands on deck; ailing Sonia roped in too

That the Congress was keen to send an ‘all hands on deck’ message was evident in the fact that the Jaipur rally also saw Sonia making a rare poll campaign speech. Sonia, who quit electoral politics earlier this year and is now a Rajya Sabha member from Rajasthan, has drastically reduced her poll-time appearances over the past decade owing to her ill-health.

Although she did attend the INDIA bloc’s Loktantra Bachao rally in Delhi on March 31, she had chosen not to address the large crowd that had gathered in and around the Ramlila Maidan. The former Congress president’s previous poll-time rally during last year’s Telangana assembly polls too had come after a long gap of several years, which saw Sonia either completely skip campaigning or sending a message that was read out during a rally.

Even though it is not yet clear whether the 2024 campaign will see more of Sonia, Congress insiders said the party is “exploring” the feasibility of getting her to address at least a few rallies, particularly in the southern states where she remains a hugely popular figure and, with some luck, also in Uttar Pradesh.

Clear focus on manifesto in poll rallies

The party’s publicity managers are also keen that video messages explaining and extolling the Nyay Guarantees are recorded by sundry senior leaders and circulated widely on all social media platforms. Rahul took the lead in this initiative on Sunday (April 7); a video message from him seeking public feedback on the manifesto was shared on his Instagram and other social media pages and shared by other party leaders for greater visibility.

Sources said Kharge, Sonia and Rahul want all campaigners of the party to “spend maximum time” speaking about the party’s Nyay Guarantees while addressing any election rally.

“The BJP is a master at creating diversions. We think our manifesto has some revolutionary ideas and it offers a very distinct alternative vision from that of the BJP of what the Congress and its INDIA partners will do if voted to power. We know that the BJP will do everything possible to trap us into responding to something that deflects attention from our Nyay Guarantees. This is what Modi did with his Muslim League remark about our manifesto. The high command is very clear – we are not to fall into these traps and have to stay on message,” Imran Pratapgarhi, Rajya Sabha MP and member of the party’s manifesto drafting committee, told The Federal.

Nyay Patra pressers

The Congress is also planning a series of Nyay Patra press conferences to be addressed by senior party leaders across state capitals and some other major towns over the next week.

“About two dozen press conferences will be organised across the country on April 10 and April 11 to create awareness about our 25 guarantees. The leaders who will address these conferences will explain why each of these guarantees is important and expose the BJP government’s failures on related issues. The main focus of these conferences will be on our promises for the youth, women and farmers... we think our guarantees of caste census, ₹1 lakh per annum financial aid for women, ₹1 lakh per annum stipend under Right to Apprenticeship, legal backing for MSP, etc will touch a chord with the voters,” a party leader said.

Congress leaders have also been asked to reiterate what Kharge has been saying at several of his poll rallies – that while the track record of Congress governments promptly delivering on the party’s assembly poll guarantees in Karnataka, Telangana and Himachal shows “hum jo kehte hain, woh karte hain (we deliver what we promise)”, Modi is known only for making “fake promises and jumlas.”

In his poll rallies, Kharge has been leading his party’s charge against the prime minister by highlighting the Centre’s failure in fulfilling several of the promises that the BJP mascot had made to the electorate ahead of the 2014 and 2019 general elections.

During his speech at Jaipur on April 6, Kharge had said, “We do not make false promises like Modi... which guarantee given by Modi has been fulfilled till today? He said he will give two crore jobs annually. In 10 years, has he given 20 crore jobs to the country’s youth? He said he will bring back black money from foreign banks and distribute ₹15 lakhs to everyone; did he do that? He said he will increase MSP, double farmers’ income – has any of it happened? Modi’s only guarantee is the guarantee of lies. He is a master of deception. He has done nothing for this country but goes around abusing the Congress and the Gandhi family,” Kharge had said, adding that “Modi’s only guarantee is Zero Guarantee’.

Challenges due to slump in funds

With its electoral war chest severely depleted due to a drastic fall in donations and the dubious penalties imposed on the party by the Income-Tax department, the Congress knows it can’t compete with the BJP in engaging tools of mass publicity such as booking advertising spots in television channels and newspapers or even installation of hoardings. Handicapped, the party has chosen to go back to the basics by urging leaders to step up door-to-door campaigns for creating awareness about its poll promises.

Last week, Kharge had launched the party’s Ghar, Ghar Guarantee Abhiyan in Northeast Delhi. Over the next two months of the poll campaign, the Congress aims to distribute as many as 11 crore “Guarantee Cards” to households across the country. While these cards will list out the 25 Nyay Guarantees, party workers being roped in for the campaign have been told that when they visit a house to hand over the Guarantee Card, they must also highlight other promises mentioned in the manifesto that are relevant to a particular region or group of voters.

“Although the 25 guarantees are exhaustive, there are still other promises in the manifesto that have a limited target group. For instance, we have promises for the fisher-folk which are obviously not relevant to the voter in, say, Madhya Pradesh or Rajasthan, but they are important to communities in the southern states or even in limited parts of Gujarat and Bengal. While distributing the cards, the volunteers will have to factor in such issues and create awareness accordingly,” said a party leader.

Besides booth-level workers, the Congress has also roped in cadres from its frontal organisations such as the Indian Youth Congress, the Seva Dal, the Professionals Congress, the Mahila Congress, Kisan Congress and others for the Ghar, Ghar Guarantee Abhiyan.