Local boys recently admitted during the Youth Congress’s recruitment drive are gearing up to take on the BJP in cyberspace.
Gujarat Congress is getting tech-savvy and how! Local boys recently admitted during the Youth Congress’s recruitment drive are gearing up to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in cyberspace. The saffron party is spending crores of rupees on advertising ‘Advani for PM’ on any website an Indian could possibly visit while Narendra Modi’s blog is attracting a lot of attention.
Congress veterans have entered the cyber campaign fray with profiles of the local Congress unit on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. The FB profile has 135 members - perhaps a far cry from BJP’s several profiles on networking sites. The
debates on Congress’s sites are however well relevant and fairly regularly updated.
What’s more, party leaders are also using this opportunity of virtual networking. For instance, Siddharth Patel’s profile has ‘supporters’ and ‘fans’ instead of friends.
The party has started campaigning with debates and discussions on these sites and
information updates on their regular sites have been beefed up significantly.
Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said, “We are using debates, discussions and opinion polls on networking sites and blogs to reach out to young voters. The party’s stress on youth is clear this time. Search engine optimisation has also been improved.”
He added that teledensity in Gujarat is one of the highest in the country. According to data of four mobile operators, the state has around 1.8 crore subscribers. “SMS is another effective medium to reach out to youngsters, which we will also utilise to the hilt,” he says.
Recently, close to 20 lakh SMSes of US president Barrack Obama showering praise on Indian PM at the G-20 summit were sent. The party’s association with the song ‘Jai Ho’ is also being promoted. The song is the ring tone and caller tune of several party workers. What’s more, Congress’s advertisements can be seen on www.youtube.com as well.
While aggressive and very organised online campaigning has been a given for the BJP for quite some time, this is perhaps a first for the Congress to take up the medium. The party has already installed internet-enabled kiosks at places frequented by youth all over the state.
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