It's BJP's "Cyber Warriors" vs Congress' "Sipahi" In Madhya Pradesh Polls

Bhopal: As Madhya Pradesh gears up for high-voltage campaign ahead of the assembly elections, the BJP has recruited about 65,000 "cyber warriors" to take over the party's social media platforms and help send young voters to the polling stations. An additional 5,000 will be added to the syndicate soon.

The Congress, too, has formed its own army of 4,000 to counter the onslaught. They are known as "Rajiv Ke Sipahi", named after former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The party plans to train 5,000 more for the task, Dharmendra Bajpai, the state party's IT cell in charge said.

When the BJP national president visited Jabalpur on Tuesday, he met these "cyber warriors" and discussed strategies to take on the Congress in the social media space, a BJP leader told news agency Press Trust of India.

Both the parties plan to reach out to voters on Facebook, Twitter, but there will be special emphasis on WhatsApp.

"During elections, our biggest weapon is going to be WhatsApp. We will hold training sessions in the state's revenue divisions from June 25," Mr Bajpai said.

Shivraj Singh Dabi, the BJP's state information technology (IT) cell in charge, added, "We are going to be doubly active on WhatsApp as it's the biggest communication tool, especially to reach out to villagers."

The BJP's IT cell said it spread information about the central and state governments' welfare schemes for farmers during the 10-day "Gaon Bandh" from June 1 to June 10.

Mr Dabi said that the party managed to beat the Congress's campaign around the farmers' agitation.

However, Mr Bajpai rubbishes the claim and said their "Rahul with farmers" hashtag on Twitter was a "huge success". It trended for 23 hours on Twitter when Congress chief Rahul Gandhi visited the state's Mandsaur district and addressed a farmers' rally on June 6, he said.

The hashtag recorded participation of more than 1.25 lakh people on Twitter, he said.

The newly appointed state Congress chief Kamal Nath, whose attack on Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's government is getting intense by the day, has over 85,000 followers on Twitter. Whereas the chief minister is way with 47 lakh followers.

The state BJP has about 2.8 lakh followers on Twitter and 2.5 lakh on Facebook. However, with 1.5 lakh followers each on both the social media sites, Congress has only half the number of followers compared to the BJP.

(With inputs from PTI)