Bengaluru: Despite the long weekend a large number of software professionals from across the state logged in at the Jnanajyothi auditorium in the city on Saturday. Their mission? To use social media to the best advantage of the Janata Dal (S) and its leaders, H.D Deve Gowda and H.D Kumaraswamy in the run-up to the 2018 assembly poll.
Fittingly, the event was shown live on Facebook and going by the organisers, was watched by over 14,000 people across the globe. Mr Kumaraswamy inaugurated the event by taking selfies with the techies in the jam-packed auditorium.
It was a few months ago that a group of techies loyal to the JD(S) came up with the idea of using social media for its promotion. And they began to pursue this seriously after the success of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, aware that the saffron party had created around 10,000 groups on Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp to help in its campaign.
While JD(S) MLA, YSV Datta appealed to techies on the occasion to create a bank of mobile users to propagate the party’s achievements, Mr Satish Gowda, an employee of a private hospital in Mysuru, who is very active on social media, claimed that an online campaign about the proposed 'Kumara Patha-2018' and 'Chinthana Manthana' progammes launched on behalf of the party ,had received tremendous response with as many as 75,000 professionals registering for them.
Meanwhile, addressing the enthusiastic gathering, Mr Kumaraswamy appealed to the people to give him a full five year term to change the face of Karnataka. "I do not want to knock on the doors of anyone seeking support to form a coalition government. Give me the number of seats to form a government independently," he pleaded, promising to help solve the city’s drinking water troubles by implementing the A T Ramaswamy report in toto and removing lake encroachments without succumbing to pressure, if voted to power.
