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NEW DELHI: Once identified with its khadi-clad leaders seated on the floor and reclining on bolsters, the grand old party of Indian politics, Congress, is turning a new leaf. Come July 2, Congress’ Karnataka unit will hold the party’s first-ever online swearing-in ceremony for DK Shivakumar as KPCC president.
The online oath-taking ceremony, ‘Pratijna Dina’, will be attended by nearly 10 lakh people located in the state’s remotest corners, spanning 7,800 locations, 30 districts, 462 blocks, and 6000-gram panchayats and municipalities, leaders associated with the preparations told TOI. The programme’s USP, they add, will be the many interactive features where participating party workers will not only watch the online event, but will also be administered the Congress pledge, and will readout, along with the newly-sworn in KPCC president, the Preamble of the Indian Constitution.
If successful, the Karnataka experiment, which is being keenly watched from New Delhi, will also serve as the blueprint for Congress’s online campaign in poll-bound Bihar, and the assembly polls in Assam due next year.
Shivakumar’s big-bang digital entry, which many say is Congress’ effort to play ‘catch up’ with rival BJP on the technology front, is a move that has not only been necessitated by coronavirus pandemic and the need for social distancing but also because Shivakumar wants to build Congress as a “cadre-based party” in Karnataka.
Sources said it is for this reason that while only a handful of senior leaders will join Shivakumar at the oath-taking ceremony in Bengaluru, the rest of the party rank and file will participate from remote locations through a multitude of digital and social media platforms and with the help of live telecast on regional tv channels.
The online oath-taking ceremony, ‘Pratijna Dina’, will be attended by nearly 10 lakh people located in the state’s remotest corners, spanning 7,800 locations, 30 districts, 462 blocks, and 6000-gram panchayats and municipalities, leaders associated with the preparations told TOI. The programme’s USP, they add, will be the many interactive features where participating party workers will not only watch the online event, but will also be administered the Congress pledge, and will readout, along with the newly-sworn in KPCC president, the Preamble of the Indian Constitution.
If successful, the Karnataka experiment, which is being keenly watched from New Delhi, will also serve as the blueprint for Congress’s online campaign in poll-bound Bihar, and the assembly polls in Assam due next year.
Shivakumar’s big-bang digital entry, which many say is Congress’ effort to play ‘catch up’ with rival BJP on the technology front, is a move that has not only been necessitated by coronavirus pandemic and the need for social distancing but also because Shivakumar wants to build Congress as a “cadre-based party” in Karnataka.
Sources said it is for this reason that while only a handful of senior leaders will join Shivakumar at the oath-taking ceremony in Bengaluru, the rest of the party rank and file will participate from remote locations through a multitude of digital and social media platforms and with the help of live telecast on regional tv channels.
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