Uttarakhand Cong scores over BJP in poll pitch on social media
The Congress has uploaded special videos of chief minister Harish Rawat and finance minister Indira Hridyesh promising people a better government.
The Uttarakhand Congress has taken a lead over the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in running a campaign on the social networking site Facebook for the February 15 assembly elections.
The Congress has uploaded special videos of chief minister Harish Rawat and finance minister Indira Hridyesh promising people a better government.
The BJP’s IT (information technology) team has uploaded on its FB page live videos of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s December 27 address in Dehradun, and footages of press conferences and public gatherings. But the Congress has gone a step ahead of the BJP despite Modi’s thrust on digital India campaign.
A few hours before the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced poll dates on January 4, the party’s FB page -- ‘With Uttarakhand Congress’-- uploaded a 45-second tailored video showing shades of Rawat -- meeting poor people, visiting Kedarnath after the 2013 tragedy and other shots -- with background score and song.
The video ends with a message “Nay Saal ki Nai Bhor Se, Hogi Nai Shuruwat. Jan Jan ki Asahaon Par, Tikey Har Da aur Haath”-- congratulating people and assuring god governance -- after three days of the new year. It got 683 views, 330 likes and 20 shares.
The second designed video on Hridyesh was uploaded on January 5. The 4.45-minute video, titled ‘Meri Kahani’, features the minister sharing her childhood stories -- how her father participated with Mahatma Gandhi in Dandi March, among others. He died when she was 11 years old. Hridyesh talked about her financial struggle and journey till she became a minister. The video has had over 424 views and 112 likes.
The ruling party runs a separate official page in the name of Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress, which has received only 16,000 likes so far, and has uploaded videos on its activities.
Congress IT head Amarjeet Singh said, “Definitely our IT and social media teams are one step ahead of BJP. We are happy with the preparations.”
The saffron party’s official FB page -- BJP4UK -- has uploaded nine videos of Modi’s speech, the public gathering, and the enthusiasm of people. The last video was updated on December 30.
Though the number of videos in the BJP page is more than that of the Congress, they feature public gatherings during addresses of national leaders, such as BJP president Amit Shah, and defence minister Manohar Parrikar, and press conferences and reaction footages. The official page is liked by nearly 94,000 FB users.
“We agree that the emphasis till now was on live coverage of our public gatherings. But we are hiring people for designing better videos on Faebook, which is popular among people,” BJP’s IT and social media head Ravindra Petwal told Hindustan Times.
