Jolted by the recent local body elections results in Kerala, Congress general secretary Tariq Anwar on Friday said the party would put in a 90-day action plan for the coming Assembly elections in the State.
Polls in Kerala would be around April-May, along with Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam and Puducherry.
And the Congress is hoping to wrest the State back from the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) as the State is known to alternate between the LDF and Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) every five years.
However, the UDF came second to the LDF in the December local body polls, which is being seen as a precursor to the Assembly polls.
“We have about 90 days for the Assembly elections and will put in place an action plan. I was in Kerala on December 27 and 28 to review the recent local body polls. From now on, I will be visiting the State every 10 days,” Mr. Anwar told The Hindu.
“In terms of vote share, we are behind the LDF by about 0.95 %. So, we will specifically target the mandals where we didn’t do well and see what changes we need to make,” he stated.
Three regions
The entire State had been divided into three regions and three secretaries from the All India Congress Committee (AICC) have been assigned one region each to take feedback from grass root workers, he said.
Asked who would the Congress project as its leader to take on Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Mr. Anwar sidestepped by talking about “collective leadership”.
While Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) is headed by Mullappally Ramachandran, Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala, former Chief Minister Ommen Chandy and former Lok Sabha member P.C. Chacko are also front runners for the top job.
“We have many senior and experienced leaders,” he said, refusing to name anyone as a possible leader of the UDF.
Mr. Anwar also answered about political contradiction of bitterly fighting the LDF in Kerala while aligning with the Left Front in West Bengal.
“At the national level, the Congress and the Left have often fought together against communal forces. Political equations also differ from State to State. In Kerala, the BJP is not much of a force,” he explained.
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