Congress' TN unit gears up for 2024, Rahul Gandhi issue livens up grassroots

Chennai, March 29 (IANS) Even as the 2024 Lok Sabha elections are more than a year away, political parties in Tamil Nadhu have commenced preparations for it.

Chief Minister and DMK President M.K. Stalin has urged party workers to win all the 39 seats in the state and to wrest the lone seat in Puducherry from the AIADMK. His party also appointed observers for all 234 Assembly constituencies and is in the process of strengthening booth committees.

In a similar vein, its ally, the Congress has also commenced organisational work at the grass root level to win the seats allocated to it in the next Lok Sabha polls.

The Congress had contested 9 seats in Tamil Nadu and one seat in Puducherry in 2019, winning 8 of the 9 seats in Tamil Nadu with the lone loser being veteran leader and former Union Minister, E.V.K.S. Elangovan who lost from Theni constituency to O.P. Raveendranath, son of O. Panneerselvam.

Talking to IANS, state Congress President K.S. Alagiri said: "The Congress is a commendable force in Tamil Nadu and our alliance with the DMK is intact. The people friendly schemes of the DMK government and the relentless struggle by our leader Rahul Gandhi has increased the stakes of the Congress in the state."

He said that the party would strive to win all the seats from Tamil Nadu and the grass root work for the same has begun.

The Congress leadership has chalked out a strategy wherein the party will also appoint full-time observers for each Assembly constituency and will put special care in the assembly constituencies where the AIADMK or the BJP had won. The issue pertaining to the disqualification of Gandhi from the Lok Sabha has become a major subject for the party to motivate its grass root cadres and already the party has conducted agitations and protest marches at the booth levels in the state.

The Congress state leadership has also taken up several programmes to highlight the "anti-people" policies of the Central government and is conducting meetings at the grass root level for creating awareness against its policies and programmes that were affecting the public.

A senior Congress leader, who did not want to be named, said that the party is highly rejuvenated in Tamil Nadu and is certain to repeat the victory it had in 2019, winning 8 of the 9 seats. "This time our focus is to win all the 9 seats which is not a big task to do."