BJP to revamp cyber strategy

As Congress has woken  up from its slumber  and considerably  stepped up its social media attack on the ruling regime, the BJP has sought to revamp and redeploy its “cyber strategy” to effectively project Government policies and programmes across the country.

The last four years’ projection of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the “strides” taken by the country under his leadership  have been the mainstay of the BJP’s social media strategy in different State Assembly  polls with regional variations. Modi would continue to be in the centre of BJP’s cyber-packaging but with additional and  fresh embellishments.

With the Lok Sabha polls round the corner, the party is re-tuning its social media moves, which include Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp, blog writing and video advertisement to promote Government’s programmes and showcase its achievements.

The BJP IT cell experts are trying to re-assess the fast evolving “likes and dislikes” of voters as reflected in the social media conversations and exchanges.

In an effort to re-assess the social media scene, which  is in flux most of  the time with thousands of opinions crisscrossing different  sites, BJP leaders interacted and exchanged opinions in a meeting last week.

Party president Amit Shah, Defene Minister Nirmala Sitaraman, party general secretary  Ram Madhav and Union Minister of State  MJ Akbar , among others, attended the meeting to provide substantial inputs to the BJP’s social media  warfare. PMO (OSD) Hiren Joshi and Arvind Gupta, who heads My Gov website, also took part in the discussion.

The need for an authentic  dissemination and display  of pro-poor schemes and achievements of the BJP Government in the social media was emphasised. It was agreed that to-the-point counter-narratives vis-à-vis the Congress and other Opposition parties should be thrashed out.

This has come as the BJP increasingly seeks  to polish its image  in the social media space with nuanced messages and advertisements. Towards this end, the party would be deploying more cyber foot-soldiers in the social media, sources said.

With the importance of social media increasing and its impact felt by the political parties, the space has been filled with the rivals who want to prove the other as telling a lie and spreading falsehood.

While the Congress is attacking the “development agenda”, the ruling party is sticking to the plank and pushing it hard in all State elections, which have somewhat worked in its favour.

All parties have been posting  series of videos, countering each other and seeking to prove the leader on the other side of the fence as false. Thousands of WhatsApp accounts have also been opened by the parties.

As the BJP is re-vitalising its cyber space, it has also asked its spokespersons across all States to keep their responses short and sweet, targeting the crux of each issue and make the best use of the little time available on the television or social media.