Gujarat: After vikas has gone crazy, Congress to launch campaign celebrating vikas' last Diwali

The Congress is looking to capitalise on its new-found social media popularity with a new campaign targeted for Gujarat, where Assembly polls are set to be held later this year.

Mayuresh Ganapatye  | Edited by Dev Goswami
Ahmedabad, October 14, 2017 | UPDATED 19:34 IST

Buoyed by the success of its vikas gando thayo che (development or vikas has gone crazy) social media campaign, the Congress is looking to corner the Bharatiya Janata Party with another Twitter hashtag.

This one aims to celebrate the demise of "crazy vikas", or, as the Congress might put it, #VikasNiChelliDiwali (vikas' last Diwali).

The Congress hasn't coined a catchphrase or a hashtag for its new campaign, but the party aims to launch it in the upcoming days, just as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, once again, pays a visit to his poll-bound home state.

The day after Diwali marks the beginning of the Gujarati new year and the Congress seems to be saying that with the end of the year will also mark the end of the 'crazy vikas'. "Motive behind this new campaign is to tell people that this would be the last Diwali of all jugaads (hacks) and jumlas (empty promises)," Congress's Gujarat I-T cell head Roshan Gupta said.

Congress and other opposition parties have often accused Modi government of misleading the public with its announcements and have claimed that PM Modi's speeches are usually full of empty promises, or jumlas.

The Congress has been upping its game in Gujarat, where the ruling BJP is seen its toughest fight in years. The state goes to the polls in December and this will be the first time Gujarat will elect a new assembly since Narendra Modi left Gandhinagar for New Delhi in 2014.

The party has gone on all out on social media and the 'vikas gando thayo che' jibe was even repeated by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, this time in the real instead of the virtual world.

Such was the success of the 'vikas has gone mad' campaign, that both Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and BJP chief Amit Shah were forced to react to it.

'NO PERSONAL ATTACKS'

Talking about the 'last Diwali of vikas' campaign, Roshan Gupta said that the Congress is not looking to personally target BJP leaders. "We are not making any personal attack on BJP leaders, we are just (showing) the ground reality with our social media campaigns. Our campaigns are based on facts and figures," the I-T cell head of Gujarat Congress said.

The Congress, which has for long been overshadowed by the BJP on social media, seems to be learning from past mistakes.

In every district of Gujarat, the Congress has formed a team of around 60 to 70 volunteers. The teams have been given special training on handling and generating social media content. This includes training in writing creative posts, shooting short videos and clicking social media-friendly photographs.

These teams do not directly launch a campaign on their own. They forward their work to I-T cell control room where the final decision on the use of the volunteer-generated content gets made. Congress claims that their social media effort is volunteer driven and that the party has hired any professionals.

Gupta attempted to buttress the claim by saying that the 'vikas gando thayo che' campaign was the result of a volunteer's idea.

"#VikasHasGoneCrazy is an original concept of our one of the volunteer from Saurashtra. He sent us photograph of the... development in Saurashtra along with this line in Gujarati: 'vikas gando thayo che'," Gupta said. "It was this sentence that we converted into a hashtag."

Will the virtual likes and shares that the Congress has been garnering on social media transform into actual votes? Time will tell.