The Hindu : Cong. trying to cash in on victory momentum

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 05, 2003

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National

Cong. trying to cash in on victory momentum

By Javed M. Ansari

NEW DELHI March 4. With Governments in place in Himachal Pradesh and Meghalaya, the Congress leadership has now turned its attention to the four States that are going to the polls in October this year.

Efforts are underway to synergise the party organisation and the State Governments in the Congress-ruled States, to ensure greater synergy between the two.

Keen to build on the feel-good factor generated by the victory in the two States, the central leadership has set in motion a number of organisational activities to gear up the party. A two-day national convention of block presidents has been planned in the capital between March 27 and 28. This will be followed by a massive rally next month.

The national convention of block presidents is an attempt to get a feedback, from the grassroots level, on issues that require attention.

The convention will also allow the block presidents and the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, to interact directly with each other.

In the States where the Congress is in power, a renewed effort is being made to ensure greater synergy between the party workers and the Government. Ms. Gandhi has been laying great emphasis on the need for the State Governments to involve party workers.

The party is already holding a series of State-level workers' conventions, comprising panchayat and block presidents, the PCC office-bearers and the Government heads.

At the convention held in Bhopal last week, the AICC general secretary in-charge, Ambica Soni, presided over by meet.

Though buoyed by its victory in Himachal Pradesh, the Congress leadership is also drawing its own lessons from the results. The party is acutely aware of the fact that its State Governments will have to contend with the anti-incumbency factor.

The leadership believes that apart from the State Governments getting their act together, there has to be greater cooperation and coordination between the Government and the party workers.

Ms. Gandhi is of the opinion that the only way to offset the anti-incumbency factor is for the ``party and the State Governments to work together''.

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