Congressmen in Madhya Pradesh have a new battle ground — cyberspace. But unlike the ground level tussle with the BJP, social media and internet are proving tricky, often resulting in self goals, goof ups and embarrassment.
Acting as per Congress high command’s directives, Congress leaders are out to counter BJP on the social networking site Facebook. This is entirely a new experience for them. Some of them find it easy to update their statuses frequently, while most find it difficult.
After AICC vice president Rahul Gandhi asked party leaders to counter the misleading campaign of the BJP leaders on facebook, all State party leaders became active and a number of pages related to the party came up on Facebook.
A page — Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee — was prepared in which leader of Opposition Ajay Singh is seen with his message, mission of Rahul Bhaiya is to bring the party in power in 2013. In this page, PCC chief Kantilal Bhuria is missing.
There is another page — Ajay Singh (Rahul Bhaiya), but Singh is not operating it. It is being used by his fans to upload his pictures and status messages that may inspire Congressmen.
Somebody commented on the page, Congress ki sarkar banane ke leye ek jut ta bahut jaruri hai kyoki aadhi seeto par Congress hi Congress ko harati hai (There is need for unity among Congressmen, because on half the seats, Congress gets defeated due to Congress).
Besides, there are pages prepared by fans of both Bhuria and Ajay Singh. The page of Bhuria supporters is — Kantilal Bhuriya Friends Club, while Ajay Singh supporters have come up with Ajay Singh (Rahul Bhaiya) Fans Club and Ajay Singh (Rahul Bhaiya Sena).
Union Minister of State for Energy Jyotiraditya Scindia is also not far behind. His pages are Jyotiraditya Scindia Fans Club, Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia and Jyotiraditya Scindia Yuva Sangathan.
Interestingly, there is one page, Jyotiraditya Scindia and whoever is operating this page, poses as Scindia himself. On March 10, he remembered late Madhavrao Scindia: ‘Happie B’day daddy ... i luV u IJ IJ IJ mIssNg u alot my daddy: :’( :’( :’( :’(- Rest in peace’.
In another status, he writes, ‘hello... frds kisi ko bhi hamse kuch baat karna ho toh only hame hey msg karen...’ Surprisingly, the Scindia camp is aware of this fact and instead of taking any legal action against the imposter, they are enjoying the situation.
Scindia’s media incharge Keshav Pandey said this imposter’s page had come to his knowledge and he would soon seek legal advice on the issue.