AHMEDABAD: Tucked in a quiet corner on the third floor of Gujarat Congress office at Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan in the city is a small team working on computers, making phone calls and coordinating. On the face of it, this is normal election work but the small group really is handling a new experiment implemented for the first time by the Congress – meticulously identifying and involving over 3 lakh committed booth-level workers across Gujarat.Leading this state-wide initiative is retired IPS officer Kuldip Sharma, who joined Congress in 2015. For the last six months, Sharma has spearheaded what Congress calls “Chief Election Coordination Centre” or CECC. With the help of Venkat Ramani of Sam Analytics, over the months, Sharma has perfected a system in which the party has dedicated booth-level workers across 25,000 booths in 114 of 182 constituencies in Gujarat. This is the first time that Congress has ever tried to reach out to the grassroots in Gujarat, where it has been out of power for 24 years. “We are taking on a cadre-based party like BJP . It is essential that we develop a good election management system,” says Sharma, who has become used to taking on Modi government over the years.Sharma started the exercise in May and identified 131 of 182 Assembly constituencies where the work was started. Out of the list of 182 constituencies, 28 seats where Congress was sure to win were kept aside. Another 23 where Congress was sure to lose were again deleted and the party started work on 131 constituencies. The state was divided into six regions and each region got a “regional manager” who worked with field executives. These executives fanned out to the villages identifying committed Congress workers willing to work for the party during campaigning and drawing out voters on the election day.This machinery is now working with party candidates in door-to-door campaigning and identifying potent election issues. The team, which is like the nerve centre of Congress, has prepared an Assembly constituency profile of 114 segments where the party’s foot soldiers are ready. This includes caste profile, electoral history and changing demographics. The field executives have been attached to candidates and even educated about how to help in door-to-door campaign.Sharma says, “In the first phase of election we have already written to candidates even giving backend support like how to lodge complaints with Election Commission or file an FIR if there is an election-related offence. Some times candidates do not even know what qualifies for an offence. A model FIR has also been framed and given to these candidates.”What has enthused the Congress has been the response when its foot soldiers were put to test. “We tested our systems to check if these would be effective. After all how do we get a feedback if we don’t test them,” says Sharma. Just a day before Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi started his campaign in south Gujarat, Sharma asked regional managers to mobilise booth-level workers. “They just had to come out themselves,” says Sharma who admits that the response was overwhelming and the crowds could be seen in Gandhi’s yatra.The team, however, got a reality check on its next test when it tried the same with former finance minister P Chidamabaram’s visit to Ahmedabad on November 14. The party had asked about 150 booth level workers to turn up at the event organised at Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Though the programme was a success, Congress got a reality check when not even half the identified foot soldiers turned up in Ahmedabad. It was an indication that the party needed more work in Ahmedabad district, where it holds only four of 21 Assembly segments.