Use social media to counter misinformation, Nirmala tells partymen

Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industries Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday called upon the party cadre to use social media platform to counter misinformation and negative campaign against the BJP ahead of the Assembly polls in Karnataka.

Inaugurating a day-long BJP Social Media Conclave in Bengaluru, Nirmala said detractors of the party are likely to step up negative campaign against the BJP in the run-up to the polls. “Party functionaries can effectively use social media to counter them by giving correct information to the people,” she said.

The BJP has already planned to use social media in a big way to reach out to the voters. It has taken up an initiative to create at least 5,000 WhatsApp groups. The plan is to create at least 25 WhatsApp groups in each of the 224 Assembly constituencies in the state. The groups will be segmented to cater to different sections of the citizens.

Nirmala, a Rajya Sabha member from the state, said social media volunteers should highlight local issues and problems in their posts. They should retweet the posts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party national president Amit Shah and other prominent leaders. She also called for involving more women in the party’s social media initiative.  


Highlight achievements

BJP national general secretary in-charge of Karnataka P Muralidhar Rao said volunteers should use social media platform to highlight the achievements of the Modi government.