Modi to begin BJP's Telangana campaign from Mahabubnagar on October 1

Hyderabad: The slogan ‘A vote for Congress is a seat for BRS’ will be BJP’s calling card for the upcoming prime minister Narendra Modi’s first public meeting in Telangana ahead of the state elections. The BJP’s star campaigner PM Modi will be holding a gathering at the ITI Ground in Mahabubnagar on October 1, which will kickstart the election campaign for the BJP in the state.

The burden lies on BJP state president and MP G Kishan Reddy and the remaining legislators and parliamentarians to show their strength by drawing a huge cadre to the first public meeting. The saffron party has so far received 6,300 applications for MLA tickets and has completed its screening of candidates. The party is likely to announce its first list of names in October.

A mandate has been passed down that elected parliamentarians must contest in the state legislative assembly elections. This puts all eyes on party president Kishan Reddy, whether he would contest on an MLA ticket from Amberpet or Secunderabad and the rest would follow.

Speaking to NewsMeter, a BJP senior leader said, “There are likely to be nine public meetings in total in Telangana; prime minister Modi will hold three, Union home minister Amit Shah will hold 3, and BJP president JP Nadda the rest. Locations like Nizamabad, Khammam, and Nalgonda are zeroed down. Meanwhile, the filtering process of candidates is completed, and the first list will be announced after this meeting.”

“The candidates were screened by BJP president G Kishan Reddy, election management chairman Etela Rajender, former president and MP Bandi Sanjay and Central Parliament board member and MP Dr K Laxman. The party held a meeting in Delhi, headed by senior leaders Sunil Bansal and Prakash Javadekar, to finalise the names. The focus is more on giving tickets to Other Backward Castes (OBCs) and women,” the senior leader added.

Inside BJP’s social media army in Telangana

The BJP’s online army is divided into three categories: the IT team, the social media team, and the data call centre.

The social media team was announced even as the party is yet to release the list of candidates. G Kishan Reddy, Nizamabad MP Arvind Dharmapuri, former MP Dr Boora Narsaiah Goud, Vedire Sriram, Poreddy Kishore Reddy, and G Yoganand will lead the IT and social media team under various categories. The team consists of 34 members excluding the district and divisional teams.

In the majority of the elections and by-elections in Telangana, it is seen how the saffron party dominates social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

The many election strategies include creating multiple Facebook fan pages, countering and cross-countering dissenters on Twitter, cross-platform trolling of opponents, curating videos, and beyond. The social media team holds a bank of information about the opponent including their background, criminal cases, assets, and list of failures, if any.

Fake news, trolling hurt BJP’s credibility

However, many times the BJP SM team has also been plagued with fake news and was caught unawares with a fact-check. In a couple of incidents, unrelated videos, images, or rather old videos were passed off as current and real news. The SM team is also known for its widespread polarising communal content. Besides the opposition, many journalists have also been primary targets.

The IT and social media team, for any political party, work like ‘honey bees’ which has a supreme mother bee. The team maintains a main WhatsApp group where directions are given daily. This group decides and approves content, and even gives a go-ahead signal to counter or troll.

‘Expose MLA-turned-millionaires in Telangana’

Speaking to NewsMeter, former MP Boora Narsaiah Goud explained BJP's online strategy: “MP Arvind Dharmapuri, Vedire Sriram, Poreddy Kishore Reddy, G Yoganand and I will work as advisers. We have zeroed down on five topics: First, propagate the BJP government’s people-friendly schemes and their benefits to the public. Second, explain how the Telangana model is ruining democracy. Third, prove how Congress’s declaration does not collaborate with the existing availability of funds. Fourth, expose every MLA who has turned into a millionaire, courtesy to chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, and finally, preach the BJP manifesto to every household in Telangana.”

He said that the social media team will create posters, reels, short videos, and YouTube explainers. The team will be divided at district and mandal levels and will reach out to 34,7000 polling stations.

When asked if BJP social media head Amit Malviya’s team will be working with the Telangana setup, he added, “The Delhi team will help creatively. However, it is the state leaders who will finalise the content.”

Every volunteer will expose each MLA who turned into a millionaire in Telangana. The saffron party usually seeks the help of mandal and booth-level volunteers to disseminate content in local WhatsApp groups and Facebook pages, he added.