Congress tells its leaders to log on

In a bid to claim its share of the online space, the Congress Party is planning a major onslaught. This is especially being done in the poll-bound states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab. Hitherto, online has been a BJP-dominated space. The party is credited with using cyberspace to its great advantage in the watershed 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Two years later the Congress has decided that it does not want to be left behind.

Apart from stark realities of caste and religion there is another constituency which is slowly but steadily developing. And that is the constituency of the online world. Youngsters and college-going students are hooked to Facebook and micro-blogging site Twitter. The BJP and AAP have already made inroads and now the Congress wants to have a share in the pie.

The Congress has instructed all its senior leaders in the poll going states to log on. Congress’ UP chief ministerial candidate Sheila Dikshit has opened a Twitter account recently, and the Uttar Pradesh Congress has opened an account of the yatras taking place in the state. In Punjab too, apart from Captain Amarinder Singh, the Punjab Congress chief, the account of his yatras have been activated. These are Punjab Da Captain, Coffee with Captain and Halke Vich Captain.

Ms Dikshit gives daily updates on her Twitter account about the yatra being undertaken by her. While other leaders of the state, like former Union minister Jitin Prasada, has increased the frequency of his tweets. In the last six days of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s yatra, he has been tweeting multiple times a day with snapshots from his yatra. His tweets are religiously retweeted by most Congressman.

In Punjab, former MPs like Pratap Singh Bajwa and Vijai Inder Singla have been tweeting pictures of the sabhas taking place there. In fact, Mr Bajwa has also started doing live videos on periscope. Something which was unheard of earlier.

In Uttarakhand too, chief minister Harish Rawat and state Congress chief Kishore Upadhyay have logged on.

The Congress’ social media incharge Deependra Hooda says, “It is time for us also to disseminate the good work done by us online, our plans and policies should have peoples connect.”

In 2009, the first Congressman to come on Twitter was Shashi Tharoor. An act which was frowned upon by his colleagues. Now the Congress wants its leaders to be available online to cater to and nuture the cyber constituency. Certainly the wheel has turned full circle for the Congress.