By IANS,
Ahmedabad : The Congress party is setting up hundreds of internet kiosks across the country, including 50 in Gujarat, to promote an online campaign to register youth members and inform them about the central government’s initiatives, party sources said here Thursday.
“Our online campaign strategy is being worked out by a dedicated IT team. The installation of internet kiosks in Gujarat is one aspect of the campaign. Its final shape will emerge within the next one week,” Arjun Modhwadia, Congress spokesperson for Gujarat, told IANS.
He added that similar kiosks are being installed by the party across the country.
“The party is setting up 50 internet kiosks across Gujarat to register youth members on the party’s website that is under development. This will be done before candidates file nominations (for the states’s 26 Lok Sabha seats),” said a member of the Congress IT team.
“The move is being considered the second phase of the membership drive Rahul Gandhi initiated in the state,” he added.
Rahul Gandhi, the party general secretary, undertook a whirlwind tour of the state’s universities in February to motivate students to join the Congress’ youth wing.
A Congress worker said the kiosks will have customised software to make them as interactive as possible. There will also be an option for the youth to send messages to Rahul Gandhi from these kiosks.
“The main objective of setting up the kiosks is to attract the youth to the party since many of them are internet savvy. The kiosks will enable the youth to find out what the (central government) has done in the past five years,” he said.
Party sources said a total of 600 kiosks will be set up across the country. They will also be used for regular transmission of the key excerpts of the speeches of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi.
Lok Sabha elections will be held in the country in five phases from April 16 to May 13. Gujarat will go to the polls April 30.