Congress prepares to set up poll war rooms in Bengaluru
- Congress to aggressively use social media as a propaganda tool; hopes to compete with BJP, which has already mastered the art
- The party is scouting for a space in and around Cunningham Road and Vasanthnagar to set up the war room
- More than 20 IT professionals will help devise online strategies
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In the last eight years, the BJP’s poll strategies have been packed with punches mainly because of the way it used social media to engage/influence the voter. From creating a huge ‘Modi wave’ to capturing Uttar Pradesh in totality, the BJP has been bombarding the voter with messages on not just the party’s assurances, but also current affairs and everyday political developments. The party had ensured that it became the talking point before and after the elections.
Will the Congress in Karnataka be able to match its opponent by taking to cyber space during the run up to the 2018 Assembly elections? The grand old party certainly hopes so. It is however yet to start work on putting together its poll war room where online and offline strategies will be drawn up to counter the BJP’s aggressive virtual campaigning.
The Congress is presently scouting for a place in Bengaluru to house the social media team. During the 2013 Assembly elections, the Congress had used the house of party leader M B Patil (who is presently the Water Resources minister) on Ali Askar road.
This time around, as the social media team is going to comprise more than 20 IT professionals, strategists and retired journalists, the party wants to move into a bigger space. Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president G Parameshwara wants the war room to be located either on Cunningham Road or in and around Vasanth Nagar, so that it will be close to both the party office on Queen’s Road and Vidhana Soudha. It is learnt that party leaders B L Shankar and B K Chandrashekar will be entrusted with the responsibility of manning the war room.
“Social media is an important and effective media tool to connect to the voter, especially youngsters, and we would want to use it aggressively. This aside, the team will focus on collecting statistics, formulating strategies, analysing results of previous polls, and the major issues to be faced by the party during the elections,” said Shankar.
While BJP’s national president Amit Shah is rumoured to set up the party’s war room in the City outskirts, its’ general secretary Muralidhar Rao is said to set up a house in Bengaluru ahead of the polls. Congress’s general secretary in charge of Karnataka, K C Venugopal and his team of four secretaries are also said to make Bengaluru their homes.
Not wanting to be left out, the JD(S), which has stuck to its traditional methods of electioneering, too wants to metamorphose into a tech savvy party. The party wants to set up its war room in Sadashivanagar in the City, where more than 50 IT professionals will work towards promoting the party’s ideologies, its contributions and what it has to offer to the State if it gets elected. All three parties plan to explode into the cyberspace in July.
