New Delhi: The Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) has said in a letter to aspiring candidates that they must have social media influence if they want to get a party ticket. News agency ANI has published the letter dated September 2, which says in Hindi that an aspiring candidate must have 15,000 likes on his/her Facebook fan page and 5,000 followers on Twitter.
Madhya Pradesh state assembly elections will be held later this year.
Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) writes in a letter to ticket aspirants, ‘candidates in upcoming polls must have 15,000 likes on their FB page, 5000 followers on Twitter,& a WhatsApp group of booth-level workers.They must like&retweet every post on MPCC’s twitter account’ pic.twitter.com/tvrh9aAVJp
— ANI (@ANI) September 3, 2018
The letter also says that the aspiring leaders must retweet everything that is tweeted from the MPCC handle and like the party’s posts on Facebook, and also create and manage a WhatsApp group with booth-level party workers.
At the very least, the MPCC has said, party members must have a Facebook page, a Twitter account and be active on WhatsApp.
Candidates have been asked to submit details of their social media presence to the MPCC by September 15 if they want to be considered for tickets.
According to News18, the latest directive has come soon after state Congress chief Kamal Nath reportedly expressed anger and disappointment at how the party’s IT cell was functioning. Dharmendra Vajpayee lost his job as the IT cell head after that, and Abhay Tiwari, who led the party’s online campaign in Gujarat, replaced him.
In July, Indian Express reported, the BJP state information technology (IT) cell in-charge Shivraj Singh Dabi said that about 65,000 ‘cyber warriors’ have been taken on by the party in the last three months, and 5,000 more will be employed shortly. The Congress has employed a team of about 4,000 people named ‘Rajiv Ke Sipahi’ who will be spreading the party’s message on social media.
“The Modi government has misused IT which is an initiative of the Rajiv Gandhi government. Now the Congress wants to use it for spreading the truth,” NDTV quoted Shobha Oza, a Congress leader, as saying.
Dabi told the Indian Express on the Congress’s strategy, “We are going to be doubly active on WhatsApp as it’s the biggest communication tool, specially to reach out to commoners and villagers.”