NEWS SCAN

In the run up to Delhi’s municipality elections, which took place across 272 wards April 23, one of the biggest battlegrounds was the internet. The ammunition: Twitter and Facebook.

Starting with the incumbent BJP’s Delhi IT cell, where about 350 party supporters volunteered their time to creating political posts, tweets, and videos. This further expanded into 200 ward-specific WhatsApp groups comprising 1,000 members each.

“What we have done differently with the MCD elections is tie the online with the offline. Our party workers, when they go on the ground, they are at tea stalls or on the road talking to our supporters, they will show them videos and posts on their phones,” said Sumit Bhasin, head of the BJP IT cell in Delhi.

Also battle-ready was the Congress’ MCD social media, which comprised about 20 NSUI members, youth Congress members and volunteers with expertise in strategy, copy-writing and graphic designing.

As carried on NDTV in 25.4.2017