HYDERABAD: Aware that social media is a powerful tool not just for campaigning but also to counter the narratives of its political rivals, the ruling Congress is likely to hand over the operations of its social media wing to the team of party’s political strategist Sunil Kanugolu. This team played a vital role in the party’s victory in the 2023 Assembly elections.
In the government, the Congress faced a torrid time from the main Opposition BRS, which cornered the ruling party in the Legislature as well as on social media over the administration’s shortcomings.
In the recent Budget session, the Opposition party’s campaign against the administration led by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy became a point of discussion. Pro-BRS handles released various videos on social media attacking the ruling party — some of these videos were even vicious in nature. At a point of time during the Assembly session, BRS handles trended #bagman, personally targeting the chief minister over the infamous “vote-for-note” scam.
Incidentally, Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka — while referring to a tweet by one of the pro-BRS handles—admitted in the Assembly that he was not that adept when it came to handling social media campaigns.
On the other hand, the negative campaign against the Congress government’s welfare schemes such as free bus travel for women has garnered the attention of the people.
The Opposition highlighted sporadic incidents of tussles between passengers, hinting that the free bus travel scheme for women was a failure. Similarly, the opposition is also running campaigns on the provision of electricity with allegations of frequent power outages. The government has not been able to effectively counter this as its social media presence is not that strong.
Considering these drawbacks, the Congress is planning to entrust the social media operations to Kanugolu’s team which has earned a name for designing creative campaigns and videos that effectively convey the message to the people.