Will ensure participative campaigning: Soni

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 28

Ambika Soni, the newly appointed chairperson of Congress campaign committee for the 2017 Assembly elections, today said the party was well positioned in the state.

Soni said: “We have all assured party president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi of a win in 2017. My job will be to ensure that the party’s campaign is as participative as possible and more and more people are associated with it.”

She said there was an overwhelming desire to bring Capt Amarinder Singh back at the helm of the state unit.

“The Congress leadership recognised this and did the right thing,” said Soni, one of the senior most general secretaries of the Congress.

The Congress hopes Amarinder’s charisma and Soni’s accessibility will work in its favour but also acknowledges the challenge of engaging the youth who may tilt towards Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP given the lack of jobs and acute unemployment in Punjab. Even in Delhi elections, AAP primarily damaged Congress prospects.

Soni admitted to the challenge of winning youngsters over saying: “Engaging the youth will be our biggest challenge. That’s one reason why our young Lok Sabha MP Ravneet Bittu has been brought in my team as campaign committee convener. Soon a campaign team will be put in place where all our top state leaders, including Partap Bajwa, will have a role.”