As the Lok Sabha elections are coming up in 2024, political parties have begun chalking out their strategies. In the wake of declining winnability on Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST) seats, the Congress party has reportedly shortlisted 56 reserved parliamentary constituencies out of 121 it had lost in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The party aims to improve its electoral performance by giving special attention to the shortlisted seats.
As a part of its ‘Leadership Development Mission’, Congress is planning to identify individuals in the shortlisted constituencies who have the required skills and a local support base to help the party.
It is notable that in May last year, the Congress party in its Udaipur Declaration following the deliberations at ‘Nav Sankalp Chintan Shivir’ had announced several organizational reforms, one of which was to start a ‘Leadership Development Mission.
9. A subgroup of CWC to for programme implementation & advice
— Gurdeep Singh Sappal (@gurdeepsappal) May 15, 2022
10. A cap of 5 years on tenure for all office bearers
11. Leadership Development Mission for weaker sections
12. Social Justice Advisory Council to aid & advise Congress President on SC/ST/OBC/Minority/Women issues 3/n
The 28 ST seats are spread across 12 states, though they are in different states than the identified 28 SC seats, which are spread across 12 states. According to Congress’s strategists, these segments where the party secured second portion in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections represent winning chances for Congress.
“It is better to focus here (shortlisted seats) than to spread resources thin across the country,” TOI reported quoted a senior office-bearer of Congress as saying.
This mission will form a dedicated structure that has a ‘parliament seat-in-charge’ who will be working through ‘coordinators’ in these segments. Their main task will be to identify people capable of mobilizing support among Dalits, Tribal, and minority communities.
The ‘identified’ persons will be expected to hand over a list of sympathetic voters and a campaign plan to Congress’s contesting candidate.
The party strategists have come to the conclusion that one of the main causes of the Congress party’s poor electoral performance is its practical breakdown in reserved constituencies, which were once its strongholds, in light of the party’s declining share in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Out of the shortlisted SC seats, Telangana has three, Bihar, Gujarat, and Haryana each have two, while Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra each have four. MP has six of the ST reserved seats, Gujarat has four, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan have three each, and Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Telangana, and Karnataka have two each.
The leadership mission which the Party President Mallikarjun Kharge has termed a ‘high priority’ is being conducted under the supervision of Rahul Gandhi’s close aide K Raju.
Other than the 56 reserved seats to focus on ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Congress has also identified 243 SC and ST seats in five poll-bound states Tripura, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan, Karnataka, and Madhya Pradesh. Elections in these states will be held this year.
