Delhi Congress ups social media ante

NEW DELHI: The Delhi unit of Congress has revived its social media cell, which apart from generating content on its own, is taking help of the research unit to fact-check and counter “fake news”.
While the Delhi units of AAP and BJP have a large number of followers on social media platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, Congress is quite behind. The Facebook page of Delhi BJP has more than 27 lakh followers whereas AAP-Delhi boasts of more than 14 lakh followers.The Delhi Congress, however, has about 4.73 lakh followers. On Twitter, AAP-Delhi leads with 7.73 lakh followers; Delhi BJP has 4.27 lakh followers whereas Delhi Congress has approximately 70,000.
Congress state coordinator for social media, Rahul Sharma, said the party had been regularly posting videos, slogans, data graphics and other such posts on the two platforms to engage with people. “Unlike the two rival parties, which have paid teams to look after social media, we have volunteers engaged in the work. But the number of followers is increasing on a daily basis,” he said.
Sharma added that Delhi Congress had appointed social media conveners in each parliamentary constituency, assembly segment and municipal ward. The activities taking place at the state level are shared on WhatsApp and Facebook with these conveners, who further touch base with booth-level workers. “We are also going to launch our YouTube channel and will soon be active on Instagram,” he said. “We also have quick-response teams that keep an eye on BJP and AAP’s posts and respond to any fake or incorrect information,” he added.
Though the Delhi research team of Congress has been in existence for the past few years and works closely with the AICC’s team, it has now been energised keeping the Lok Sabha elections in mind. It recently prepared a report card of the seven BJP MPs. The team has five state coordinators, who are professors in various universities, apart from research associates and interns. “We have gathered huge information on the work done in Delhi in the past few years. We have scanned through the government and municipal corporation websites and documents, filed RTI applications and fact-checked media reports to compile the data,” Puja Bahri, Delhi chairperson, AICC research team, said. “If a media panellist or the spokesperson needs any authentic information to discuss an issue at any platform, we provide them with all the data. Similarly, we are sharing such information with the social media team, which further disseminates it to our office-bearers at the district, zonal and ward level to create awareness among masses.”
The research team is also working on issues like sealing, pollution, employment and environment, which will be included in the Delhi Congress manifesto.