With an eye on the Assembly elections, the Congress on Thursday launched a digital membership drive in Bihar. If the polls are held as per schedule in November this year, it will be the first to be held under social distancing norms in the wake of COVID-19.
With the normal political activity coming to a standstill due to the pandemic, the Congress is gearing up to launch a spree of virtual rallies in the State over the next 10 days. “Opening the digital membership is the first step. Over the next few days we will be holding virtual rallies and unlike the one held recently by Home Minister Amit Shah, it won’t be a one-way communication with the people,” Congress’s social media in-charge Rohan Gupta said. He said the people of Bihar were frustrated with the State government, which failed to handle the pandemic and the migrant worker crisis created by the lockdown.
“In the case of Bihar, our job is particularly easy, because all we have to do is to amplify the voices of the people who are already fed up with their government. Which is why the slogan Bole Bihar Badle Sarkar,” he said.
Missed call
For digital enrolment, Mr. Gupta said anyone could give a missed call on a designated number to join the party. He claimed that while it might sound similar to the BJP’s missed call campaign, it was technically different. “Each person who gives a missed call will be sent a detailed form to key in his details, including uploading his photograph and the voter ID. We will also be verifying these members,” he added.
The Congress has had over 600 internal meetings, including two meetings of the Congress Working Committee, in the last four months since the lockdown was implemented. “Our communication is even better than the normal period. It is new normal. It is not as if once the pandemic goes, these online platforms won’t be used. I believe, it has become a regular part of our political schedule.”
The party had been working on expanding its digital footprint. Mr. Gupta said that in the last two months, the Congress had enrolled over a lakh of social media volunteers. “We currently have about two lakh volunteers and we aim to go to 10 lakh volunteers soon,” he added.