BHOPAL: Battle for Mission 2018 seems to be going on a virtual world with both the
BJP and
Congress Party readying their space. The BJP's 'cyber yoddhas' are ready to take on the rival party's 'Rajiv ke sipahi'.
Both sides have drawn up extensive plans at the district-level. If the BJP has planned workshops to make inroads into the interiors to equip and educate its cyber warriors, Congress has readied its counter attack to highlight several sensitive issues and negate the claims of the BJP on achievements in the last 15 years.
Saffron 'cyber yoddhas'
The BJP cyber cell is abuzz 24x7 as 50 dedicated warriors spearhead the saffron party's bid to capture voters' mind space ahead of assembly polls.
It's not simple posts and retweets. These youngsters are busy doing social-media analysis, data crunching, digital media projections and special ops against rival political groups.
Five of the cyber warriors are primarily campaign strategists who work under the guidance of Shivraj Singh Dabi, a tech-savvy expert in his thirties.
Then, there are 11 members each in 56 organisational districts, six each in 838 mandals and one each in 65,000 booths taking the figure to a whopping 70,544 techies the party has named 'cyber yoddhas'. With such professional manpower, the party is ready to launch a full-fledged cyber war in the upcoming assembly election.
"A peep into the state BJP's high-tech cyber cell will reveal a team of techno savvy youngsters, mostly in their early 20s and 30 years, planning strategic operations on state and central government achievements. The mission is to ensure that the party wins as many seats as possible and form the government for the fourth consecutive time," said Dabi, adding most of the information about how the cell works cannot be disclosed to the public.
Of the 50-odd key members, 15 work in shifts while others supervise activities of the party and rival group members. They also maintain contact with the 65,000 booth-level warriors.
Countering BJP blitz: Congress's 'Rajeev ke sipahi'
Congress will counter BJP's 'cyber yoddhas' with its own 'Rajeev ke sipahi'. "From districts, blocks, mandalams and the booths, the Congress party will have its IT cell workers spread out at each level to counter BJP social media onslaught," said state Congress IT cell convener Dharmendra Vajpayee. In past two months, the Congress was rattled by some negative spoof videos, which went viral against its top leaders.
Though BJP denied the party had any connections with those parody videos, the Congress decided not to go negative on the social media.
"At the party's top level, it has been decided that the Congress party will not make videos to humiliate or crack cheap jokes at rival party leaders," Vajpayee said. "We are not here to provide despicable entertainment. Instead, the Congress IT cell and workers will raise issues against the ruling BJP through social media. All contents will be issue-based."
PCC leaders said unlike the 'Angad ka Paer (invincible)' video allegedly circulated by the BJP, which depicted chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan as Angad and state Congress president Kamal Nath as Ravana, the Congress will raise questions on dissatisfaction of farmers over Fasal Bima Yojana (crop insurance scheme), rise in crimes against women, growing unemployment, Bhavantar scheme and other issues affecting common man through social media.
"There are 65,000 booths in the state and our party will have at least one person in every booth to work on the social media. They will be given to groom them for the upcoming elections. Already, 20,000 are on the job while the rest of the social media infantry at the ground will be ready by August 15," Vajpayee said.
