Congress diktat to its leaders in MP: Tickets only to those with huge social media following

NEW DELHI: Ahead of Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, the Congress has issued a new diktat for its party members - Increase followers on social media to get party ticket. The party has made it mandatory for its leaders to have Twitter and Facebook accounts. 

Not just a compulsory social media presence, the leaders have also been asked to ensure that they have at least 15000 likes on Facebook, 5000 followers on Twitter and be part of several WhatsApp groups. 

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

They have also been asked to retweet and like all posts of Madhya Pradesh Congress and share the posts from the official party page on their own pages. 

The leaders have been asked to submit details of their social media handles to the party by 15 September if they want their names to be considered for nomination for tickets for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections.

Both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are putting their best foot forward to optimise the use of social media to influence voters in the MP elections. As per an earlier report, 'cyber warriors' of the BJP are competing with 'Rajiv Ke Sipahi' of the Congress in cyberspace to woo young voters.

The BJP's state information technology (IT) cell in-charge Shivraj Singh Dabi had said about 65,000 'cyber warriors' have been deployed by the party while the Congress has set up a team of around 4,000 'Rajiv Ke Sipahi' to battle it out against the BJP on social media.

Both the parties have said that they will reach out to people through Facebook, Twitter with a special focus on WhatsApp, owing to its wide reach. "During elections, our biggest weapon is going to be WhatsApp," Congress state party's IT cell in-charge, Dharmendra Bajpai had said.

Dabi had also said that the BJP will be doubly active on WhatsApp as it's the biggest communication tool, specially to reach out to commoners and villagers.

The Congress and the BJP have been claiming that through the use of social media, they would try to dispel misunderstandings and false propaganda of their rivals in the run-up to the state polls.