The office-bearers of the information technology and social media units of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) were on Sunday rapped by the party’s working president, R. Mohan Kumaramangalam, for “not being active on social media”. He warned that if they failed to improve their output over the next few days, he would be constrained to change the office-bearers.
The dismal attendance at a meeting of office-bearers of the two units at the TNCC’s headquarters Sathyamoorthy Bhavan had further upset the party leadership. Mr. Kumaramangalam said that during a review, it was found that some office-bearers were inactive on Twitter to such an extent that they didn’t even bother to retweet party leaders’ posts.
In the next few days, a national committee will be visiting Tamil Nadu, and the party functionaries will need to buckle up, he said. Drawing comparisons with the social media units of other parties, Mr. Kumaramangalam, who is also the president of the Tamil Nadu Chapters of the All India Professionals’ Congress, said party workers should make use of the internet to promote the party and themselves.
Though the Makkal Needhi Maiam secured only about 3.5% of the vote in the recent Lok Sabha election, it was quite active on social media, as were the Dravidian majors, he pointed out. He asked how many office-bearers had tweeted about the TNCC’s waterbody restoration scheme undertaken recently. Holding party posts was not enough. Members had to be active on social media, he said.
During her PowerPoint presentation in the meeting, INC-Shakti State general secretary Lakshmi Ramachandran underscored the need for projecting the party’s USP and suggested ways in which office-bearers could post catchy and influential tweets on social media to counter political opponents.
She pointed out how the content produced by the DMK’s social media unit, led by legislator P.T.R. Palanivel Thiagarajan, was ‘world-class’ and how Congress party workers could come up with impact-oriented content on social media. Small insightful videos of interviews with Congress leaders could help generate good content, she suggested.
Some party workers said former Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s decision to step down was a major factor behind the lack of enthusiasm towards social media activity. Observing the proceedings of the meeting was AICC member and in-charge of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee Sanjay Dutt, who patiently listened to the concerns raised by party workers.