New Delhi: In an attempt to reverse its shrinking voter base, the Congress party on Tuesday set up two organisational departments to target financially weaker sections as well as the middle class, a key voter base in urban India.
Professionals’ Congress and Unorganized Workers Congress under the All India Congress Committee (AICC) are headed, respectively, by senior Lok Sabha leader Shashi Tharoor and Arbind Singh, who has worked in the unorganized sector.
The move is significant because a similar strategy was adopted by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party during the campaign for the 2014 general election, and included reaching out to professionals, traders, chartered accountants, lawyers and others.
The Congress suffered a humiliating defeat in the 2014 general elections, followed by a series of electoral upsets in the states.
Both the departments will work closely with the party’s state units while looking at mobilization, providing a platform for raising issues related to the two sections as well as helping the concerned communities with access to resources. Politically, the party also aims to increase its support base and tap a bigger urban populace.
“The All India Professionals’ Congress is to function as a decentralized, democratic platform... . Many of you keep saying the Congress party does not have a new idea. So here is a new idea and not only a new idea in itself but a vehicle to produce more new ideas from the people of this country, the professionals of this country,” Tharoor told reporters.
Equating it with a “political Rotary Club” within the party, Tharoor said that there is paid registration through the website of the department which looks at integrating educated tax-paying professionals on a single platform.
The main aim of the second department is to provide a formal setup for the party’s attempts to mobilize unorganized workers.
“The key idea is to mainstream those working in the unorganized sector. Congress being such a large party, this can give the unorganized workers, whether from rural or urban areas, a platform to voice their concerns. If the party structure gives them a voice, it will be more sustained,” Arbind Singh, chief of the new department, told Mint.
“For the party it will be easier to tap community leadership. Most of the young leaders from unorganized sectors are limited to local communities and a platform like this will help the party identify such individuals. The aim is to not just provide a voice but also provide a platform that integrates, innovates and helps these communities get access to resources,” Singh added.
Senior party leaders feel that the formation of organizational departments is key to expanding the Congress’ social and political base. The discussion to reach out to people involved in these two sectors was first mooted by party vice-president Rahul Gandhi who felt such outreach programmes are essential to the party’s agenda, leaders said.
“There has been a consistent attempt at restructuring the party and to make attempts to reach out to different communities. The formation of the two departments should not be seen in isolation because in the last few months, many other outreach programmes have also been started, specially for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and fishermen,” a senior party leader said, requesting anonymity.
The formation of the two departments is in line with the Congress party making a series of additions and changes to its departments in the last few months. They now include a new Overseas Congress department and an All India Fishermen Congress, as well as changes to existing departments to form the renamed Research department, the Legal Human Rights and RTI department and the Adivasi Congress.
