The Congress announced on Wednesday its intention to involve citizens and incorporate their suggestions for preparing the party’s manifesto for this year’s Lok Sabha polls. In this regard, the grand old party launched a website and an email ID to enable itself to prepare a people’s manifesto.
Addressing a press conference at Congress headquarters, former Union Minister P Chidambaram, who heads the Manifesto Committee of the Congress, said that the party is holding consultations and seeking suggestions from the public for the manifesto. He emphasised that the manifesto for the Lok Sabha election will be a “people’s manifesto.”
“The present exercise is to receive suggestions from the members of the public. This will be a people’s manifesto. So, it is important to gather as many suggestions as possible in the few weeks available to us,” Chidambaram said.
“We want to involve the people of India in making the manifesto. We hope people from every walk of life will give their suggestions. We appeal and invite you to provide suggestions you would like to be incorporated into the manifesto to make it a people’s manifesto,” he added.
The former Union minister said that at least one consultation would be held in each State. “The idea is to hold at least one consultation in each State. In some States, more than one public consultation may be held,” he said.
When asked if their INDIA bloc allies will also be consulted, the Congress leader mentioned that anyone who wishes to attend the consultation is welcome, but a decision on holding discussions with allies on the manifesto will be taken by the party chief.
“If the ally parties of the INDIA group wish to attend the consultation, they are most welcome.... Whether there will be a higher-level consultation will be for the Congress president to decide,” Chidambaram said.
Convener of the party’s manifesto committee TS Singh Deo said the exercise is being carried out to ensure that the voice of the people is reflected in the document. “It is important to seek the suggestions of the stakeholders so that it does not remain merely an academic exercise,” he said.
In response to a question about whether repealing three recent criminal laws passed by the government will be part of the manifesto, Chidambaram mentioned that there were a few dissent notes against these laws from him, party leaders Digvijaya Singh, and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, already in the public domain.
Regarding the likely date by which the manifesto would be finalised, the Congress stated that it expected to complete it by February 15 for the CWC approval, as the manifesto has to be approved by the CWC.
