With the State unit of the BJP nudging its functionaries to actively use Facebook and Twitter to reach out to youngsters, the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) seems to have finally woken up to the possibilities that the social media presents.
In a move seen as a counter to the BJP’s propaganda machine on the internet, the TNCC has now begun a series of training sessions to party workers to improve its footprint in the virtual world.
On Saturday, a six-member team from New Delhi conducted a workshop for about 160 TNCC functionaries from the northern districts of Tamil Nadu.
Sources said that the members were asked to ensure that specific pages are created for their particular district units. They should consistently post information on the achievements of the UPA government so that it reaches a wider audience.
“We were asked to engage with people in Facebook and Twitter to spread the word of the leadership. They said that social media is a crucial platform to reach out to youngsters,” said a person who attended the session.
“The BJP has managed to create hundreds of pages which bombard users with propaganda material, especially the achievements of Narendra Modi. Compared to them, we (TNCC) are nowhere in scene,” said a Youth Congress functionary.
He pointed out that the Facebook page for the TNCC, started in April, has failed to take off with almost no response from even party workers. “It has hardly 300 members. The BJP state Facebook group has over 12,000 members. We have lot of catching up to do,” he admitted.
However, TNCC president B S Gnanadesikan said the training sessions were not to compete with the BJP. “We want people to know the achievements of the UPA. We are not competing with anyone,” he said and added that the team from New Delhi also educated the workers about Congress’ own social media platform - Khidki.