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🌱 Challenge 119
ActiveOne community in every constituency. All of Telangana. Then all of India.
A Pilot Project to build 119 JMI Ward/Village Communities across Telangana's 119 Legislative Assembly Constituencies · A Project of JMI · 2026
Why 119?
Telangana has 119 Legislative Assembly constituencies — 119 geographic units, each electing one representative to the state assembly, each home to tens of thousands of citizens who deserve accountable governance and an organised local voice.
The Ward/Village Community is JMI's most basic unit — the place where citizens meet, identify local issues, file RTIs, hold local governments to account, and build the grassroots power that makes everything else possible. It is where democracy is either real or hollow.
Challenge 119 sets a single, measurable goal: one active JMI Ward/Village Community in each of Telangana's 119 constituencies. Not a social media page. Not a WhatsApp group. A real, organised, functioning community — meeting regularly, acting locally, and connected to the wider movement.
119
Assembly Constituencies in Telangana
119
Communities to Build
1
State. Then every state in India.
What This Would Mean
JMI's First State-Wide Presence
For the first time, JMI would have an organised, active unit in every constituency of a state — turning a national idea into a state-level reality.
A Replicable Blueprint
Telangana has 119 constituencies. Other states have between 40 and 403. Whatever we learn here — what works, what doesn't — becomes the playbook for every state that follows.
Grassroots Power at Scale
119 communities means 119 local groups holding their local governments accountable — filing RTIs, raising issues, demanding transparency, and building the organised citizen power that democracy requires.
The Foundation for Political Change
With a community in every constituency, JMI is positioned to nominate people's candidates in every seat — representatives who come from among the citizens, not from above.
How Challenge 119 Works
Challenge 119 is not a membership drive — it is a structured community-building effort. Each stage builds on the last, and no stage is skipped. A community that exists only on paper does not count.
Identify at least one committed JMI member or volunteer in each of the 119 Telangana Assembly constituencies who can anchor the local community-building effort.
Each identified anchor forms a Working Group in their Ward or Village — the minimum unit needed to begin. The group starts meeting, documenting local issues, and recruiting neighbours.
When the Working Group achieves representation from at least two-thirds of the streets or areas in the Ward or Village, it graduates into a full-fledged JMI Ward/Village Community.
Once at least one Ward/Village Community exists within an Assembly constituency, a JMI Assembly Chapter is formed — connecting communities, coordinating campaigns, and building constituency-level power.
The Telangana State Chapter reviews and validates each community — checking active membership, local issue engagement, and adherence to JMI's values and governance standards.
Challenge 119 is complete when every one of the 119 Telangana Legislative Assembly constituencies has at least one active, verified JMI Ward/Village Community — and a blueprint exists for every other state in India.
After the Community Is Formed
A formed community is not a destination — it is the starting point. Each of the 119 communities has two connected objectives: one social, one political. Neither works without the other.
Social Objective
Civil Society at the Constituency Level
Each community becomes a permanent, organised civil society presence in its constituency — a group of citizens who meet regularly, know their local issues deeply, and have the tools and confidence to act on them.
This means surveying the Ward or Village to document what is missing and what is being denied. It means filing RTIs to find out where public money went. It means presenting findings to local officials with clear demands and deadlines — and escalating when those deadlines are ignored.
The goal is not protest for its own sake. It is accountability — elected representatives who know that citizens in their constituency are organised, informed, and not going away.
Political Objective
A People's Candidate in Every Seat
When a community is organised and a constituency has an active Assembly Chapter, JMI is positioned to do something rare in Indian democracy: put forward a candidate who comes from among the citizens themselves — not anointed by a party, not backed by money, but chosen by the people who live there.
During each election cycle, the Assembly Chapter issues a callout for candidates. Where multiple people come forward, a local debate and vote is held within the community. The winner becomes the movement's official nominee for that seat — a representative accountable to citizens, not to party leadership or donors.
Challenge 119 means that for the first time, this could happen in all 119 Telangana constituencies simultaneously — a full, state-wide slate of people's representatives, each rooted in an organised local community.
“The long-term goal is to nurture true leadership from the grassroots — in line with the constitutional ideals of liberty, equality, fraternity, and justice.”
Progress Tracker — Coming Soon
A live constituency-by-constituency map and progress board will be published here as Challenge 119 gets underway.
How You Can Be Part of This
If you live in Telangana — any Ward or Village, any constituency — you can anchor a community in your area. One committed person is enough to start.
If you are already a JMI member, help map your constituency and identify potential community anchors in every Ward and Village nearby.
Spread the word in your networks in Telangana. Challenge 119 only works if people in all 119 constituencies hear about it.
Bring your skills — organisers, communicators, researchers, teachers, lawyers, and local leaders are all needed at the community level.