BJP pulls up socks to take on AAP’s #MufflerMan

The growing popularity of AAP’s ‘MufflerMan’ on Twitter has made the state unit of the BJP jittery. The party is now desperately searching for ways to make its presence felt on the social media. At fundraiser, Kejriwal calls for fight against black money

The growing popularity of the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) ‘MufflerMan’ on Twitter has made the state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) jittery. The party is now desperately searching for ways to make its presence felt on the social media.

AAP’s social media campaign, ahead of the Delhi assembly elections, has been trending on Twitter with the hashtag ‘MufflerMan’ for many days now. According to sources, the state unit of the BJP has asked its members to focus more on Twitter by updating information and highlighting the work being carried out by the Modi government.

Also, for the first time, the party has asked the district units of the state BJP to come up with their own website to connect with local people. A senior BJP leader said that the Chandni Chowk district will launch its website on Tuesday.

"Hashtags including ‘Mufflerman’ and ‘Kejriwal Fir se’ have dominated the social media space for days now. Everyone is talking about it— whether or not they support AAP. Our presence on the social media is very poor and we are losing out on our youth support. A team is monitoring the work done by the social media so far and each district has been asked to create their own website," said a senior BJP leader.

Sources said former AAP leader Ashwini Upadhyay, who is now the spokesperson for the Delhi BJP, is overseeing the entire process and has been tweeting regularly to counter claims made by the AAP.

“Workers have also been asked to trend topics relevant to the Delhi BJP to show the party’s presence on social networking sites. All councillors, former MLAs and party workers have been advised to use media tools, including Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp to reach out to the people. We need to reach out to the people in every way possible,” said a BJP leader.

“The AAP has been running a full-fledged campaign on social media wherein all the policies and decisions of the government are being debated and criticised. We need to respond by using the same platform,” said a senior BJP leader.