A rude awakening for Congress on social media power?

Jaipur: Rahul Gandhi was literally left awestruck on Saturday when a Congress MP showed him hundreds of negative comments on social media on Sonia Gandhi's speech within hours of her address at the chintan shivir (brainstorming meeting).

As concerns over the party's lack of presence on social media was expressed in presence of Gandhi during discussions within the sub-group on organizational issues, party MP Shantaram Naik went up to him with a tablet and showed him that 3,000 odd tweets were posted against Gandhi's speech within hours on a news website.

Gandhi acknowledged that the party needs to address this issue.

AICC general secretary Jagdish Tytler said that there is a need for the partymen to counter the "anti-Congress propaganda" on social media and the cyberspace.

An overwhelming view was that there is an urgent need to increase the party's presence on it.

A demand was also raised to set up a separate cell on social media at the party's headquarters so that the "anti-Congress propaganda" can be countered effectively.

The issue of flash mobs also came up for discussion, wherein the speakers felt that there is a need to devise a proper strategy to meet such challenges.

Congress had to encounter the flash mob phenomena during many recent incidents including the Delhi gang-rape case where the government's handling of the protest came in for sharp criticism.

Some of the leaders also said that there is a need abolish district and block Congress committees and format the party organization as per the election unit set up, which means having a parliamentary congress committee and assembly congress committee instead of having district and block congress committees.

It was felt that this would facilitate better functioning of the party.