‘Workers shortlisted, screened before being picked for BLA-2 training’
Workers were identified, shortlisted and screened before being picked for BLA-2 training at the polling booth level for the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress' interim Delhi chief president Devender Yadav said on Sunday.
Booth Level Agents (BLA) are appointed for specific polling station areas by recognised political parties to complement the Booth Level Officers (BLO) of the respective polling stations.
Inaugurating a BLA-2 training camp in the Badli assembly segment on Sunday, Yadav said 423 BLA-2 candidates were given training on Sunday and such sessions will be held in 10 assembly segments every day over the next five days.
The main focus will be to take the message of Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and party leader Rahul Gandhi to the people and popularise the five 'nyay (justice)' and 25 guarantees included in the party manifesto, he added.
The shortlisted candidates have been provided with a bag containing publicity material such as voters' list of the area, the Congress' guarantee card, a copy of the party manifesto, and publicity material of the party candidate, among others, Yadav said.
A monitoring system has been created to evaluate the performance of the 10 teams constituted for the booth-management training.
The booth-level teams will contact first-time 18-year-old voters to ensure their support for the Congress and the INDIA bloc candidates in the Lok Sabha elections.
The first-time voters will be informed about the Congress' guarantees and the salient features of the party's manifesto and assurances to the youngsters, Yadav said.
The training programme was also intended to attract women and the elderly to the Congress and the INDIA bloc. Women are being particularly targeted to inform them about the Congress'
guarantees, including 50 per cent reservation through a legal guarantee and time-bound fulfilment of other promises to empower them in every field, Yadav said.
The main focus of the Congress is to strengthen the party's presence at the booth level. Social monitoring teams will keep a close vigil on the performance of BLAs and Congress workers and the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee will be given a detailed report of the functioning of every booth, he said. The Congress leader added that the focus is on ensuring victory not only of the party candidates but also those of the INDIA bloc in the seven Lok Sabha seats of Delhi.
Under a seat-share arrangement, INDIA bloc constituents the Congress has fielded candidates from three seats while AAP is contesting from four.
Polling for the national capital's seven seats will be held in the sixth phase on May 25.