The Congress has drawn up an elaborate plan to start a nationwide campaign to gather data on Covid-affected families, patients and the deceased, ostensibly to challenge the allegedly manipulated official counts.

The Congress has designed the campaign as an outreach programme to help frontline health workers and patients, with the planned data collection of the infected and the dead billed as a “subsidiary aim”.

The drive aims to cover three crore households in 30 days, reaching out to approximately 12 crore people.

The party general secretary in charge of organisation, K.C. Venugopal, said: “Congress president Sonia Gandhi and the respective PCC presidents will also be writing condolence letters to the next of kin of those who have passed away due to the pandemic.”

All Pradesh Congress Committees have been asked to set up control rooms and appoint at least one person in every block or ward to monitor the campaign.

The block and town area presidents will each identify 10 workers — those who have been active in helping people during the pandemic — and designate them “Covid warriors” to collect data from the ground.

Each “Covid warrior” is expected to visit a minimum of 10 to 15 households per day, Venugopal said. They will carry a questionnaire with questions like: “Was anyone from your family infected by Covid-19; Has any family member died due to Covid-19, their name and age; Was he/she the breadwinner of the family; Has anyone in your family lost his/her job due to the Covid-19 lockdown; Any support that they may be needing (ration, job, education, financial support) etc.”, he said.