BENGALURU: The battle to grab more eye balls and get into the mind space of voters in the state is heating up with the assembly polls approaching. To achieve this, the BJP drawing up a massive plan to raise a social media team of 25,000 volunteers by January 31.
BJP national general secretary in charge of party affairs in Karnataka, Muralidhar Rao, has set the deadline for partymen to complete constituency-wise workshops to train volunteers.
“We have held workshops in 160 of the 224 constituencies. Workshops in the remaining 64 will be done by January 31. The team will comprise at least 100 members in each constituency. The total number of volunteers will cross 25,000 by January 31. A dedicated 150-member team of trainers has been assigned the task of holding these workshops,” Balaji Srinivas, chief of State BJP Social Media Cell told Express.
Mahadevapura constituency, comprising the IT hub of Bengaluru, tops the list with over 400 volunteers joining the team for training, said Srinivas.
The volunteers are trained in the use of Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms to reach out to the masses with content that will create a positive impression about the BJP and its leaders like Prime Minister Narendra Modi and its Chief Ministerial candidate and party state chief B S Yeddyurappa. The Social Media Cell, with a dedicated expert team of 15 at the state level, and similar teams at the district and constituency levels, will co-ordinate with the volunteers in sharing content, pictures and videos that will help the BJP create a positive perception about the party and counter the offensive from the Congress, JD(S) and other political rivals, Srinivas said.
The process of creating WhatsApp groups in all the 224 assembly constituencies is also gaining pace. According to Srinivas, about 8,000 WhatsApp groups have already been formed. These WhatsApp groups will be devoted mostly to local issues and leaders of respective constituencies.