Rigorous training to make party as fit as a fiddle: Dutta

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, January 5: When a party, which is maintaining its winning streak for many terms in a row, suffers a serious setback in the electoral battle it stands to reason that ‘something’ has gone wrong with it. The Indian tiol Congress (INC) has been on the trail of this ‘something’ so as to take remedial measures that can keep party activities and election results in sync. With the Assembly elections in Assam slated to be held in 2016, the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) has geared itself up to take a slew of training and other activities so as to keep the party as fit as a fiddle.

Talking to newsmen in the city today, APCC president Anjan Dutta said: “We’ve started a training camp for Congress Sevadal workers today. The camp will continue till January 9. Three men and two women from each Legislative Assembly Constituency (LAC) are taking part in the camp where they are being given lessons on party discipline and the philosophy of Gandhiji – basics for becoming true and successful Congressmen. In Assam, the  last such camp held was in 1995. Some such camps will now be held at the LAC level too. Besides the  basics of Congress ideology and policy, the participants at the camp will also be given lessons on the use of facebook, youTube, tweeting etc., so as to make them internet–savvy.”

On January 10, Dutta said, the APCC would hold its   

‘Pratara Birodhi Divas’ in Guwahati where Assam observer of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), CP Joshi, would attend. Though AICC president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi were also invited to the rally, Dutta said, that their confirmation to attend the rally was still awaited. “The ruling party in Assam is going to hold the ‘Pratara Birodhi Divas’ in a big way so as let the people of the state know the volte–face which the BJP has done on a number of issues like big dam, the  India–Bangladesh Land Swap Deal, visa regime with Bangladesh  etc. The BJP was against big dams in Assam and the move to hand over Assam land to Bangladesh before the last Lok Sabha elections,” Dutta was on record saying recently.

The rally, according to Dutta, will be attended by Congress workers from all blocks in the state. “I request all Congressmen, including those who are offended and not keeping in touch with the party, to come to the rally and stand with the party,” Dutta said, and added: “This rally is being held with the help of local party honchos who can bring party workers with them in their vehicles as the party is not going to allocate any fund for such matters.”

On January 11, Dutta said, there would be training for all District Congress Committee (DCC) presidents and general secretaries, Block Congress presidents and secretaries. “DCCs and BCCs that are active and kicking will be retained and the ictive ones will be reconstituted. This apart, Congress workers who aren’t working won’t be given any post of office–bearers. Everything depends on performance and there’s no room for any recommendations,” Dutta said.

Dutta further said: “A round–table conference of the party to be med chinton baithok  will be held in the city on January 20, 21, 22 and 23 following a directive from Rahul Gandhi. Besides AICC’s Assam in–charge CP Joshi, AICC leader Manikram Tagore  will attend the conference where as many as 30 Congress leaders of Assam will deliberate to find out where and how they went wrong in the recent Lok Sabha elections in the state.”

According to Dutta, such a round–table conference of the party will be held in Guwahati again in February. “This conference will be video recorded  so as to make the views to be expressed by various speakers available to Rahul Gandhi, who will later call only speakers whose speeches are rich in contents and ideas.”

“In January 30, the death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the party booth committees in each of the 24,280 polling booths in the state will hold a meeting in its booth. All party MLAs, MPs, all DDC presidents and general secretaries, AICC members from the state, ministers and the Chief Minister will have to attend such meetings in their respective booth committees,” Dutta said, and added: “Each Congress booth committee will have to extend Rs 2,000 to the party. Such a collection will make of an amount of Rs 6.40 crore. This amount will be given back to the booth committees in cheques when the need arises.”

On February 20, 21 and 22, Dutta said, the party would hold yet another training camp, this time around, for all APCC members, all AICC members from the state, all MLAs, MPs, all DCC presidents and the Chief Minister.

According to Dutta, now onwards all circulars being issued from Rajiv Bhavan will be both in English and Assamese. “For the Barak Valley, they will be both in English and Bengali and for the BTAD and Dima Hasai, they would be in English only,” Dutta added.