With Rahul Gandhi taking over as the president of the Congress last week, the Delhi Congress too has made changes in its structure, putting in place a social media team and setting up a dedicated research wing.
Till now, the social media campaigns of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) were informally organised, without a specific team in place. DPCC spokesperson and in-charge of communications Sharmistha Mukherjee said a “streamlined social media team” had been put in place. The new system was approved by DPCC president Ajay Maken recently, she said.
District-level convenors
The team would be chaired by Rajneesh Panwar, a retired Indian Army Major who has headed the DPCC’s IT Cell, with three conveners for operations, training and creative under him. Conveners for New Delhi, east Delhi, south Delhi, Chandni Chowk, north-east Delhi, west Delhi and north-west Delhi have also been appointed. These district-level conveners will have Assembly constituency, block and booth conveners under them.
“Our strength is that our social media efforts are entirely organic and volunteer-based. We don’t have paid social media volunteers,” said Ms. Mukherjee.
Recently, the DPCC had organised Facebook live sessions with Mr. Maken to discuss the Aam Aadmi Party government’s work on education as well as Delhi’s pollution crisis. Ms. Mukherjee said the initiatives were well-received and the hashtag #MakenChallengesKejriwal was among the top trends. She added that the new social media team would organise more such “direct” interactions with Delhiites.
In addition, a dedicated research wing chaired by a Delhi University History professor Surender Kumar was also established. The research wing would help in countering the AAP government’s claims, said Ms. Mukherjee. The research team would bring out white papers on different issues and help the heads of the shadow departments prepare for press conferences, she said.
Shadow depts
The DPCC also re-jigged some of the heads of the shadow departments, which are meant to look at the work of specific government departments and agencies, including the Delhi Jal Board and the municipal corporations.
A new chief media coordinator, Mehdi Majid, and a media coordinator, Shivam Bhagat, were also appointed. Mr. Bhagat is the grandson of the late veteran Congress leader H.K.L. Bhagat.
