The poll fervour from the Congress headquarters on Maulana Azad Road in Srinagar has shifted to a famous city hotel where the Congress has established its election control room.

This spacious room now looks like a party office with Congress banners, posters, handbills and buntings splashed in every corner of the room. The telephone rings incessantly with workers and candidates seeking information about poll material and campaign programmes.

Dozens of copies of the Congress manifesto are neatly stacked in one corner of the room. The Central high command had sent 10,000 copies for local distribution. “Right now we are distributing poll material and manifesto copies in all the constituencies,” says Congress vice president Ghulam Nabi Monga, while handing a bundle of colourful posters to a candidate from south Kashmir.

The large posters carry pictures of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and JKPCC president Saif-ud-din Soz.

Each Congress contestant receives 2,000 posters and 4,000 flags with the party symbol etched on them. Candidates are also being provided 3,000 cloth banners with slogans of “peace” and “development” written on them in English and Urdu. Each candidate also gets 5,000 paper caps and cloth mufflers with pictures of Sonia Gandhi. Small cardboard badges and stickers with the party symbol printed on them are much in demand.

In Kashmir, the Congress has organised only two big rallies so far — at Sumbal and Ganderbal. Instead of big rallies, Congress candidates are focusing on door-to-door campaigning and village meetings. “Door-to- door meetings are the best possible way to reach the voters, especially in present circumstances,” says Abdul Gani Dar, Congress candidate from Rajpora.

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