Congress camp to develop leadership quality among backwards

Lucknow, Jan 21 (UNI) Ahead of the crucial Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh and on the direction of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul, a camp was held here to develop leadership qualities among the backwards, Dalits and minorities to make them ''a part in the present governance.'' The two-day camp which concluded here today was attended by 860 delegates representing 238 Assembly constituencies in the state out of the total 403, where the Congress candidates had received less than 8,000 votes in the last Assembly elections.

The camp being organised under the banner of Sanyukt Bhagidari Morcha, was started in July 2006. It has also constituted 17 team which gathered data from each village of these 238 constituencies and select the candidates who had been deprived by political groups in the past.

Close confidante of the Gandhi family and convenor of the Morcha, Manoj Matoo claimed that the process of leadership development among the deprived is a non-political agenda with the delegates being trained to adopt the policy of -- ''think right, choose right and vote right''.

''The camp has got much popularity among the youth and in future, the delegates which will cross more than thousands, would be invited for direct interaction with Ms Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi,'' Mr Matoo added.

Claiming that there are several delegates in the camp, who have enough potential to become Congress candidates in the coming Vidhan Sabha polls, Mr Matoo maintained the next camp would be held in the state capital on February 1-2, which would probably be the last camp before the elections.

He further claimed the camp has given a boost to the leadership quality of the people from the targeted groups and there is no effort to identify these delegates as a cadre of the Congress as most of them are non-political and represent different walks of life.

Earlier, the camps were held in December and October twice in the national capital.

Mr Matoo is concentrating on those Assembly seats where the party candidates had received less than 8,000 votes, while the main aim of the camp is to increase the vote bank in these seats at least by 20,000 in the forthcoming polls.

In 2004 Lok Sabha seat, the Congress could win nine seats but as per the Assembly segment, its candidates were the leaders in 47 seats and runners-up in 31 seats.

UNI