Gujarat: After vikas goes crazy, Congress celebrates mad vikas' last Diwali
The suddenly social media-savvy Congress has launched a sequel to its 'vikas gando thayo che' social media campaign in Gujarat, where elections to the state assembly are just around the corner.
Buoyed by the success of its vikas gando thayo che (development or vikas has gone crazy) social media campaign, the Congress is looking to corner the Bharatiya Janata Party with another Twitter hashtag.
This one aims to celebrate the demise of "crazy vikas", or, as the Congress seems to have put it, #Ganda_Vikas_Ni_Chelli_Diwali (mad vikas' last Diwali).
The Congress, it seems, has already launched the 'Ganda_Vikas_Ni_Chelli_Diwali' campaign, just days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi, once again, pays a visit to his poll-bound home state.
The day after Diwali marks the beginning of the Gujarati new year and the Congress seems to be saying that with the end of the year will also mark the end of the 'crazy vikas'.
People of Gujarat who r no more intrested in jumlas n lies r giving a final send off to jumla king feku #?????_???????_??????_?????? pic.twitter.com/cqGzsSt0qC- ZeBa SaLiM ? (@neena_zeba) October 14, 2017
IndiaToday.in was able to see a few posts on Twitter carrying the hashgtag #Ganda_Vikas_Ni_Chelli_Diwali, but wasn't able to verify whether these tweets were part of Congress's new campaign.
"(The) Motive behind this new campaign is to tell people that this would be the last Diwali of all jugaads (hacks) and jumlas (empty promises)," Congress's Gujarat I-T cell head Rohan Gupta said.
Congress and other opposition parties have often accused Modi government of misleading the public with its announcements and have claimed that PM Modi's speeches are usually full of empty promises, or jumlas.
The Congress has been upping its game in Gujarat, where the ruling BJP is seen its toughest fight in years. The state goes to the polls in December and this will be the first time Gujarat will elect a new assembly since Narendra Modi left Gandhinagar for New Delhi in 2014.
The party has gone on all out on social media and the 'vikas gando thayo che' jibe was even repeated by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, this time in the real instead of the virtual world.
Such was the success of the 'vikas has gone mad' campaign, that both Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and BJP chief Amit Shah were forced to react to it.
#?????_???????_??????_?????? when you cannot build metro, how are you fooling peeps with bullet train. pic.twitter.com/SCpuBKIOde- ????Shashi???? (@shashikumar906) October 14, 2017
'NO PERSONAL ATTACKS'
Talking about the 'last Diwali of vikas' campaign, Rohan Gupta said that the Congress is not looking to personally target BJP leaders. "We are not making any personal attack on BJP leaders, we are just (showing) the ground reality with our social media campaigns. Our campaigns are based on facts and figures," the I-T cell head of Gujarat Congress said.
The Congress, which has for long been overshadowed by the BJP on social media, seems to be learning from past mistakes.
In every district of Gujarat, the Congress has formed a team of around 60 to 70 volunteers. The teams have been given special training on handling and generating social media content.
???????? ????? ?? ????? ????? ?? ?????? ????? ?? ??? ??? ?????? ??? ???? ??? #?????_???????_??????_??????- GPCC IT CELL (@GPCCITCELL) October 14, 2017
This includes training in writing creative posts, shooting short videos and clicking social media-friendly photographs.
These teams do not directly launch a campaign on their own. They forward their work to the I-T cell control room where the final decision on the use of the volunteer-generated content gets made.
The Congress claims that their social media effort is volunteer driven and that the party has hired any professionals.
#?????_???????_??????_?????? No more Jumlas, no more fake promises... Gujarat is in diamond now pic.twitter.com/mnqMePdLlh- Enough now (@Indus_valley12) October 14, 2017
Gupta attempted to buttress the claim by saying that the 'vikas gando thayo che' campaign was the result of a volunteer's idea.
"#VikasHasGoneCrazy is an original concept of our one of the volunteer from Saurashtra. He sent us photograph of the... development in Saurashtra along with this line in Gujarati: 'vikas gando thayo che'," Gupta said. "It was this sentence that we converted into a hashtag."
Will the virtual likes and shares that the Congress has been garnering on social media transform into actual votes? Time will tell.
(This report has been updated with the information that the social media campaign seems to have been launched)