The Congress in UP has divided Assembly seats into three categories depending on their winnability factor.
The seats have been categorised into “A”, “B” and “C”, depending on the party’s performance in the last Lok Sabha elections and the response to the candidate for the Assembly polls.
“We have been monitoring the people’s response to the Congress candidate and the campaign in each seat and it is on this basis we are categorising the seats. Our leaders have been visiting the various constituencies and we are also taking independent reports into account before deciding the category,” said a senior UPCC leader. According to party sources, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi will campaign only on “A” category seats while the party’s union ministers will take charge of ‘B’ category seats.
In the “A” category, the Congress has put about 75-80 seats while the “B” category has another 130-140 seats and the remaining are in “C” category.
The campaign for Ms Priyanka Vadra is still undecided and it is believed that the party may use her only if a seat needs the “final push”.
“She is a star campaigner but we cannot use her in an unplanned manner. She will concentrate on Amethi and Rae Bareli and may visit a few other constituencies if she wants,” the leader said. Apparently, the Congress does not want the Bihar fiasco to be repeated in UP and is being extra careful in finalising Mr Gandhi’s campaign. “If we get reports that the “B” category seats have improved their rating and are likely to be won, we will immediately rush in with star campaigners,” the leader said.
The party has also identified seats where factionalism and resentment over ticket distribution is reigning supreme and senior leaders are being assigned the task of visiting these constituencies and resolving the differences between factions. This task has already begun in right earnest and nearly 60 per cent of such ‘troubled’ constituencies have been covered. The Congress is also keeping a close watch on the expenditure of candidates and is ensuring that the money given to them by the party is spent well.
“We have our own mechanism on the job and this time, candidates will not be able to ‘save’ money by curtailing their campaign. In the 2009 LS polls, we had reports that some candidates had just not campaigned and had saved money. This will not happen this time,” the leader added.