Eyeing Lok Sabha elections, Congress to kick off door-to-door-campaign from Oct 2

New Delhi, Sept 28: The Congress will kick off its door-to-door campaign from Tuesday, October 2, which marks the 149th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, keeping its eye on the upcoming elections. During the campaign, the Grand-Old Party will not only seek votes but also donations for the polling. The campaign, which will continue till November 19, has been named "Lok Sampark Abhiyaan", NDTV Khabar cited a report as saying.

Former Rajasthan chief minister and Congress's national general secretary Ashok Gehlot has recently sent the details about the campaign to the in-charges and state party heads. Senior leaders of the party as well as the state heads have been asked to keep a close watch on the campaign while the frontal organisations have been told to participate in it in full swing.

Reports cited sources as saying that the party has sent brochures for the donations to all state units. They have also said that the Congress's top leadership has decided to run such campaigns in January every year. However, since the next Lok Sabha election is not too far, the current campaign will be started earlier. It was also learnt that the idea to flag off the Lok Sampark Abhiyaan from October 2 was of senior party leader JD Seelam.

Seelam said the Congress will strengthen its public relation and seek votes as well as financial help. He said the party will accept whatever amount people donate. Taking an indirect dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party, Seelam said the Congress will work for the people after taking help from them in the elections and not like those who take favour from the corporates.

It was also told that the Congress leadership has decided to distribute the funds received from the public among its layers of organisations - from the national committee to the block committee. This scheme of seeking public donations for elections was conceived under the leadership of senior leader Ahmed Patel and it was approved by party president Rahul Gandhi, the reports added.