Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's 100-Day Action Plan To Reach 5 Crore UP Women Voters

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will launch the party's 100 days action plan for the "Adhi Abadi", an outreach programme for women voters in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday.

Priyanka Gandhi arrived in Chitrakoot's Ram Ghat today to launch the programme.

The Congress general secretary is betting high by announcing that 40 per cent tickets will be given to women in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. The Congress leader has also made big promises to woo women voters and for which a separate manifesto has been prepared.

Some of the key promises include smartphone and two-wheelers for college-going girls, three cylinders for free for housewives, free travel for women in government buses, an honorarium of Rs 10,000 per month to ASHA and Anganwadi workers, and old age-widow pension of Rs 1000 per month.

To give an edge to this mission, the Uttar Pradesh Congress has prepared an action plan for the next 100 days. There are about 7 crore women voters in the state and Priyanka Gandhi's banking on this significant portion of the electorate.

According to sources, the Congress is also going to commence a big public relations campaign to reach out to four crore women voters in the next 100 days. A brigade of around 8,000 woman volunteers has been assigned for the task with the slogan "Ladki hoon lad sakti hoon".

As many as 150 professionals are working on this campaign. The brigade will reach about 2 lakh women daily and convey the promises of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to them.

Congress has prepared one crore pink silicone bands and attractive stickers for the campaign. Incidents of crime against women and the issue of inflation will also be raised during the campaign.

At present, there are about seven crore women voters in the state. About four crore women had voted in the last assembly elections. Interestingly, the women voters turnout was four per cent more with 63 per cent as compared to 59 per cent of men. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections also, women voters turnout had been one per cent more than men.

According to Congress strategists, about 60 per cent of the women voters are in the age group of 18 to 35. The party has a special eye on this 60 per cent youth.

To popularize the campaign, there is also a plan to organize a marathon for girls, the winners of which will be given scooty. The promotional campaign will be run in shopping malls and girls' colleges. There are also plans to form an influencer team of 1,000 women professionals like women doctors, lawyers and 5,000 mobile units.

Congress's Digital team will send daily reports from every district to the Central Control Room. Data from the control room will be sent to the call center. A call center is running in Lucknow. Social media campaigns will be run on WhatsApp and Facebook.

Congress is focusing on 100 seats out of the total 403 Assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh. According to sources, a target has been set to contact every woman 10 times in these seats.

Apart from the outreach campaign, Congress will organize 100 town halls that is special dialogue meetings across the state. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will address 10 town halls just like Chitrakoot the event to be held today.

For the last 30 years, the Congress party has been failing in the social engineering in Uttar Pradesh. No caste is the party''s core vote bank. In such a situation, an electoral blueprint has been prepared to capitalize on the image of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra among women.

Congress feels that if its gamble on the women''s card is successful, then its numbers can be improved. With this hope, the party has designed this large-scale outreach campaign keeping half the population in view.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)