With the Lok Sabha poll campaign being fought as much on social media as on the ground, coalition partners Congress and Janata Dal (S) are pooling their online resources. This, they believe, is crucial in the fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has consolidated its position online since the 2014 parliamentary elections.
Sources in both the Congress and the JD(S) said though there was no formal agreement between the parties, they have an understanding to support content generated by one another targeting the BJP. “Apart from the fact that we are coalition partners, we are on the same page as far as countering BJP is concerned. We will promote each other’s unofficial content if it is anti-BJP,” said Srivatsa Y.B, national campaign in-charge, Youth Congress.
The Congress is expected to focus on the candidates for these elections, and also the failures of the Narendra Modi government and the “inaccessibility of the Prime Minister”.
Phaniraj of the social media wing of JD(S) said the two parties could arrive at a formal arrangement once Congress president Rahul Gandhi visits Karnataka at the end of March. “In the absence of anything formal too, the larger goal is to defeat the BJP. Our beliefs are similar and involve us supporting and sharing each other’s content,” he said.
The social media reach of JD(S) is primarily through Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy’s Twitter handle.
However, Balaji Srinivas, the BJP’s social media convenor for Karnataka, called this online partnership “a joke”. “Let them come together and stop trolling each other before starting an attack on us,” he said.
