When Mamata was trying to forge federal front, Rahul was busy overhauling social media strategy: Congress sources

While the storm over the Cambridge Analytica data leak brew over and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was engaged in building the Federal Front, preferring to meet UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi instead of Rahul Gandhi, the Congress President was meeting with social media and communications team members from all over the country in a bid to firm up the Congress's organisational structure and outlook. 

For over an hour and a half, Gandhi met members from both the teams at the 15, Gurudwara Rakabganj Road office on Tuesday. This included over 70 social media volunteers and Congress workers that were selected by the national social media coordinators. Apart from people from across the states, three volunteers were flown in from abroad with some of them having over 50,000 followers. 

National social media coordinators Hasiba Amin, Ruchira Chaturvedi and Vipin Yadav were present, as well as social media and digital communications head Divya. AICC Communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala, too, was at the meeting. 

In his first meeting with the volunteers after becoming Congress president, Gandhi’s message was clear and simple: Follow the organisational protocol and do not abuse. As per sources in the know, Gandhi had categorically said that unlike the BJP IT team, the Congress volunteers must counter debates with logic and substance and not abuse. He also told the volunteers that unlike the BJP, the Congress has failed to advertise its achievements, and that’s something the team must pick up. During the entire duration, Gandhi was seen taking down notes. 

To the surprise of many, Gandhi transgressed into discussing the party’s organisational structure in the different states. He even asked volunteers about who should be made the leaders in these regions. 

A volunteer present at the meeting said that Gandhi has kept the promise he made in the Plenary. “He had spoken about ensuring that young leaders in the party being given a chance; what better occasion than this,” the volunteer told DNA. 

Lending an ear to all those who were present, Gandhi also let part of his interaction be an open house, inviting queries and suggestions from the gathering. Speaking to a Kashmiri Pandit volunteer, he spoke about the general idea of the community being seen generally as BJP-supporters. To this, the said volunteer said that there are a significant number of Congress supporters among the Kashmiri Pandit community. 

To another volunteer, whose father is an RSS leader, he inquired about the volunteer’s rationale for being a part of the Congress. The volunteer, a young woman, told him that the RSS’s male-dominated culture lacked the appeal that the Congress held. 

Volunteers also expressed their disappointment about the party’s MLAs leaving for other parties in their state, while some spoke of fighting cadre-based parties. Answering another volunteer’s apprehension, Gandhi said that Congress’s cadres in the Seva Dal and the Youth Congress need to be strengthened. 

After the meet, the party has now formed a new group of WhatsApp and leaders have been directed to keep in constant touch with the team of volunteers from now on.