Belagavi: Shaken by the BJP's social media campaigns which helped the latter bolster its election campaign in states where assembly elections were held in recent times, the Congress party too is gearing up to launch a campaign mainly on Whatsapp, Twitter and Facebook ahead of next year's assembly elections. Several leaders at the district level are being exhorted by the party to bolster the social media campaign.
According to AICC secretary and in-charge of Mumbai-Karnataka Congress, Manikam Tagore, the party has added pace to the process of creating more groups on Whatsapp to make its campaigns effective. Several groups were created by upcoming leaders to keep in regular touch with mediapersons, he said adding that the party was keen on having Whatsapp groups in all districts to bolster its links with the media.
Considering the rising popularity and impact of social networking sites, the party has also encouraged leaders and workers to have their own twitter handles so that they could keep themselves updated on a series of topics on a daily basis. According to Mr Tagore, many party leaders were already on twitter.
Commenting on state politics which currently revolves around the issue of giving Lingayats separate religion status, he said, several leaders of the Congress in Mumbai-Karnataka were able to win from Lingayat-dominated constituencies due to their cordial relations with the community besides other communities. He did not agree that a majority of Lingayats in the so-called Lingayat belt had rallied behind BJP state president B.S. Yeddyurappa and said that the Congress was also supported by Lingayats in most of the 56 constituencies in Mumbai-Karnataka, where the party currently has 34 seats.
