Bhopal: ‘Gandhi Choupal’ – the initiative of Madhya Pradesh Congress to revive the cadre is generating a massive response, especially in rural areas in the state.
To make it more popular, the party leaders, who are monitoring the initiative, have asked the top leadership whether former Congress president Rahul Gandhi can address at least one such ‘choupal’ during the Madhya Pradesh leg of his ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’.
Interestingly, the party has started an initiative to moblise its ground level of cadre ahead of Assembly elections in November-December 2023, now party senior leaders have also started using the same platform to reach out to the people in their respective areas. Each party leader, including MLAs, has been tasked to organise at least 100 ‘Gandhi choupals’ in their respective constituencies.
Madhya Pradesh Congress president Kamal Nath would also participate in one such ‘choupal’ in his home district Chhindwara. A song on Gandhi choupal– composed and sung by a group of Betul based Adivasi artistes, is getting enormous response in social media.
Bhopendra Gupta, a senior Congress spokesperson, who is heading the initiative, told IANS that the party has appointed as many as 2,700 coordinators across the state to monitor the move. The initiative, which was kicked off on the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary on October 2, would conclude on the death anniversary of Gandhi on January 31, 2023.
Gupta said over 4,000 choupals have been organised so far and most of these have been held in the Vindhya region. Districts where the highest number of choupals were organised so far, Satna tops the list, followed by Rewa and Singrauli. Districts, which are also big cities of Madhya Pradesh like Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur and Ujjian have also gained speed up.
“Before launching it, we organised five choupals in Jabalpur district as a pilot project which was welcomed by all sections of people. We noticed that people of all age groups were joining choupals and reciting Gandhi bhajans. Then, we decided to take it forward in all districts and it was launched on October 2,” Gupta added.
The party has set a target to organise at least 25,000 Gandhi Choupals till January 31 in across the state. Gupta, further claimed the initiative is getting more response from rural part of the state in compared to urban areas.
–IANS