Booth management will be a key ingredient

Congress hopes to win with 'one booth, five youth' plan

times of india 18 Aug 2007, 1008 hrs IST, PTI

AHMEDABAD: Booth management will be a key ingredient in the Congress' plan to capture power in Gujarat where it has been in the opposition for about a decade. The party has framed an extensive booth management strategy for the state polls scheduled at the year-end, giving it the name "One Booth, Five Youth" programme. The move came after the party realised it would be at a disadvantage if it ignored any longer the need to managing the polling booths. "The BJP, with its workers, has had an edge over the Congress in recent elections due to its booth management strategy," a senior Congress leader said.

"The Congress used to have booth management earlier but after staying in power for many years in the state, it forgot grassroots work. But now the party has decided to revive it," the leader said. State Congress president Bharatsinh Solanki and state in-charge B K Hariprasad have personally travelled to several constituencies to form the "booth committee" comprising five youths. "I have travelled to 35 constituencies for framing booth committee and 40 per cent of our work in the state is completed. We are working hard to cover the rest of the constituencies," Hariprasad said. "Booth committees are very essential in Gujarat as they have to manage things on the crucial day of voting. They have to guard against bogus voting and also check discrepancies in the voters' list," he said.