After claiming to have taken the social media by storm, the Congress in Uttar Pradesh seems to be gasping for survival on a medium where the BJP is currently ruling.
After claiming to have taken the social media by storm, the Congress in Uttar Pradesh seems to be gasping for survival on a medium where the BJP is currently ruling. It is mainly because Congress leaders are still diffident to carve their identity on the social media.
The UP Congress’ Facebook page has barely 22,110 likes. Shiv Pandey, party’s Social Media Cell in-charge, said, “We have been active on the social media for just a year and all the likes are ‘real’, not fake. We want to connect with genuine people and not nameless persons”.
The party’s Facebook page is regularly updated with information and photographs of its programmes, not forgetting to take potshots at the BJP. The party’s Twitter handle, with 6112 followers, rests mainly on re-tweeting posts from the Office of Rahul Gandhi.
Even as the Congress struggles to find a foothold in the cyber world, most Congress leaders shy away from being active on the social media.
A senior party MLA explained, “For those who come from rural and semi-urban constituencies, the social media is meaningless. The voters connect better with newspapers, handbills and posters. You think a farmer in Deoria, Azamgarh or Banda would be reading your tweets or following you on Facebook .”
