‘Congress leaders in Madhya Pradesh want the MP cadre to gain from the Karnataka victory momentum’.
NEW DELHI: After the Assembly poll victory in Karnataka, Congress leaders in Madhya Pradesh (MP) want the MP state cadre to gain from the Karnataka momentum, in the Assembly elections later this year. For that, the party has devised a strategy to focus on dominating the social media narrative.
Leaders in the state believe that the upper hand in spreading political information through social media gave the Congress edge in Karnataka and found resonance among electorate. A Congress leader said, “The same media strategy is being tried and employed in Madhya Pradesh, and we are expecting the same results as we saw in Karnataka.”
Mithun Singh Ahirwar, Congress spokesperson in Madhya Pradesh, said, “We are going to focus on public issues like unemployment, and issues with women. We are targeting different people who are protesting against the government. The response has been very encouraging from the people and after Bharat Jodo Yatra (BJY), they are hoping a lot from Congress in the state. Moreover, the BJY has given us the direction. We need to be grounded and also ensure people on the ground are hearing our voice.”
Moreover, Congress leaders say that they would be cautious in not giving BJP the opportunity to dominate the narrative and for that, a Congress leader said, “we are not taking any aggressive stand on any issue, we are only taking constitutional stand so that BJP doesn’t get any opportunity to fling any issue which could put us on the back foot as they can change the course of campaigns if they can get hold of issues on religious lines”.
Moreover, the party may field unexpected faces as candidates on the weakest Assembly seats. There are around 66 Assembly seats in MP where Congress has not won even once in the last 25 years.
Sources claim the party is exploring the possibility of fielding new faces, including young faces from the film and television world, who may be new to politics, which could also give it a boost in its social media perception building in favour of the grand old party.
A political analyst in the state said, “The party has been under strict guidelines of state president Kamal Nath, and its media handling thus far has got a boost from the Karnataka win where many political observers said that the Congress took social media by storm after it tried to corner its outgoing Chief Minister Bommai. The same strategy would be tried to put in place in MP where the media team of Congress will try to corner Shivraj Singh Chouhan on several issues. All this will play out against the years of anti-incumbency and if it clicks for Congress, they would be able to translate the anti-incumbency votes into their voter-base.”