UP: BJP firms up aggressive social media policy in run-up to 2019 Lok Sabha polls

The UP BJP has nearly 34 lakh followers on Facebook, while the party’s Twitter handle in the state has about 10 lakh followers. In addition, the BJP cadres are managing about 25000 WhatsApp groups in Uttar Pradesh.

lucknow Updated: Oct 02, 2018 13:35 IST
The party plans to increase WhatsApp groups run or managed by cadres to about 50,000 to counter “propaganda” as well as to popularise party’s line.(Representative image)

The UP BJP has nearly 34 lakh followers on Facebook, while the party’s Twitter handle in the state has about 10 lakh followers. In addition, the BJP cadres are managing about 25000 WhatsApp groups in Uttar Pradesh.

Nearer to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the party plans to increase WhatsApp groups run or managed by cadres to about 50,000 to counter “propaganda” as well as to popularise party’s line.

Upcoming activities
  • BJP’s IT cell has 8 lakh cadre which is connected to 2 crore people via social media.
  • The party’s plan is to extend its reach even more.
  • From October onwards special activity of IT cell that includes district level meetings would start
  • IT department would run a NaMo App campaign to connect more and more people with NaMo App in November.
  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders too would connect with the cadres and people through the App.
  • A meeting of IT cell cadres would be held in all districts in December.

This was decided at a meeting of the party’s cyber warriors, chaired by deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and featuring state general secretary (organisation) Sunil Bansal, both of whom were widely credited for the BJP’s 2017 win in Uttar Pradesh.

The BJP’s UP IT cell has 6000 office bearers and both Maurya and Bansal made it clear that like in 2014 and 2017, the BJP would rely on an aggressive social media campaign to be run by ‘cyber yoddhas’ or cyber warriors who would be active in all the 1,63000 booths in the state, BJP leaders said.

Party leaders privy to the BJP’s social media plan said after Maharashtra, UP has the highest number of internet subscribers (more than 22.90 million) in the country.

“Naturally this is a big number. With the opposition too galvanising its social media teams, we are also bracing up for the 2019 elections, whose campaign would be fought both online and offline,” a BJP leader said.

Sunday’s meeting assumes importance as it happened after chief minister Yogi Adityanath, deputy chief ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma, as well as Sunil Bansal, the key organisational pointsperson in UP BJP’s Saturday night meeting with BJP chief Amit Shah, who has made the social media a key part of his campaign strategy.

Maurya, who chaired the BJP meeting on Sunday, claimed that Congress and other opposition parties used the social media to malign the BJP. “But we use our social media reach to make people aware of our schemes, initiatives,” he said.

Dinesh Sharma who is also the deputy chief minister said, “We will use balanced language to counter our opponents on social media.”

However, volunteers who attended Sunday’s meeting said nearer to the elections the party would adopt an ‘aggressive social media strategy’ to target political rivals, especially those targeting BJP. Sanjay Rai, BJP’s IT cell in-charge in UP, told the cadres to get busy with the party’s ‘Mission 2019’. Asked about the nature of social media campaign the party is going to roll out, a BJP volunteer said, “For instance in the Vivek Tiwari case, the party has acted promptly after the unfortunate murder of the employee. Still our opponents are targeting us. It’s here we will use our reach to expose them in a variety of ways.”

Asked if trolling would be a part of the campaign, a BJP leader said, “If you call rebutting charges trolling, so be it!”

First Published: Oct 02, 2018 13:35 IST