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With Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi setting off on a padyatra, visiting the homes of farmers who had committed suicide in Vidarbha, Maharashtra, on Thursday, the Congress ensured that all eyes were on Gandhi. Not only did the party's media department cancel its press briefing, a daily feature during Parliament sessions, to make sure that no attention was diverted from Gandhi's visit, the #KisaanMitraRG was trending on Twitter generating as many as 34,000 tweets. After drawing flak for a non-existent media strategy, the Congress' media and communication has undergone a revamp.
"It is true that earlier we were more 'reactive' in our approach; of late, we have adopted a 'proactive' style. This is also due to the fact that there is more clarity now about our agenda. Post the electoral debacle of 2014, it was still unclear whether in our messaging we should be attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Now, the gloves are off, it has been a year of the Modi government and we are using an aggressive approach to counter this government," explained a senior member of the communication team.
Transition of communication heads
Ever since the media department changed hands from veteran Janardan Dwivedi to a younger Ajay Maken and since March this year, to Randeep Surjewala as media and communication chief, the Congress is being "seen and heard' a lot more. Surjewala's "hands on approach" according to insiders has brought in more streamlined and organised functioning to the party's communication outreach. Daily morning meetings with national media co-ordinators, the social media cell representatives, the TV panel coordinators and communication department secretary ensures that all media outreach platforms work in tandem and there is unified common messaging. This is followed by a daily meeting of party spokespersons in the afternoon, after which there is an official briefing as per decided party line.
The earlier communication style of the party was more on an ad hoc basis, while now media is kept flooded with updates throughout the day, including intimations when Rahul Gandhi is likely to address Parliament.
Social media outreach
What is more visible to the public is the Congress' more aggressive online and social media presence. The high frequency of updates on multiple Twitter handles such as @INCIndia, @WithCongress, @INCLive within minutes of Rahul Gandhi or any senior leader speaking in Parliament or elsewhere has seen Congress mark its presence in the virtual space, which was till now wholly dominated by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
The party had taken some initial steps over the past six months with tweets on U-turns of the Modi government and then flagging off the issues raised by the party's 'Shadow Cabinet' for every Union ministry. A few months ago, the Congress had constituted shadow Cabinets to track crucial ministries to hold the government accountable. The Congress' Facebook page and Twitter handles are proactively attempting to highlight issues like the insensitive remarks of Haryana minister on farmer suicides or the "false" statements of the government on UPA's land Bill stalling development.
Rahul Gandhi, the focus
The streamlining of the party's messaging has guaranteed that the spotlight is on Gandhi, more so post his 56-day sabbatical. Gandhi himself is more vocal of late and is aggressively courting the media. So, at Gandhi's comeback rally protesting against the land acquisition Bill, #KisanVirodhiNarendraModi was the top trend on Twitter. Again on April 23, when Gandhi joined cause with younger generation and spoke on net neutrality in Parliament, within minutes of his speech, #RGforNetNeutrality started trending on Twitter.
The overhaul has also extended to the Congress website, which prominently showcases Gandhi, his speeches and public interactions and videos. Moving ahead with the times, the party's initiative of opening online membership to the party, finds prominent place on the site. Insiders acknowledge that this was a leaf taken out from the RSS, which had started enrolling members through online platform.
Though a late entrant to the social media world, the Congress has also marked its presence on other platforms like Vine, Youtube and Facebook hosting Congress President Sonia Gandhi's speeches, for instance.
Congress' young faces
The Congress faces, its spokespersons have also undergone an overhaul - with younger spokespersons being inducted - Gaurav Gogoi, Sushmita Dev, cine star Khushboo, Priyanka Chaturvedi, R P N Singh and former Youth Congress chief Rajeev Satav.
Despite all the new-found aggression, the Congress still doesn't match up to the BJP's communication outreach. While the Congress's Facebook page has 3,497,373 likes; BJP has 7,451,445 likes. The number of Congress followers on Twitter is barely one- fourth that of the BJP's. The latter got a head start before the 2014 general elections.
Expert take
Social media expert Mahesh Murthy, assessing the Congress online presence, says, "It's an improvement in the sense that from zero there is now some Congress presence on the social media. And, it has also helped that, of late, there is absence of competitive social activity, the kind there was during the elections when the BJP and AAP were in full form."
