CPI to fortify social media presence

Hyderabad: Communist Party of India (CPI) has decided to increase its presence in the virtual world and to reach out to the people through various social media platforms. The party’s State unit will launch its social media initiatives to take on the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and its government on June 2.

Speaking to The Hans India, party State unit secretary Chada Venkat Reddy said they, however, would continue their conventional methods of voicing their views on various issues. “From June 2, we will be going all out in the virtual world to reach out to the people in the State,” he said.

Several of its leaders like K Narayana, Chada Venkat Reddy and others have their presence on Facebook and a few other social media sites. But, it is not able to match the other national parties like the BJP and the Congress which have dedicated teams in their social media communication cells.

It was against this backdrop that the party wanted to reposition its branding in the virtual space. "The main idea is to increase the party's virtual presence. But, our focus would be issues of Telangana State, its people and TRS,” Venkat Reddy added.

“We want to launch the new programme on June 2, the day on which the separate State of Telangana was created. This is to counter the separate State sentiment narrative on which the TRS had captured the power. But, once in power, it had forgotten the aspirations of people for fighting for the separate state of Telangana. Even people are not allowed to ventilate their grievances. 

It was part of stifling public voice that the State government had removed the Dharna Chowk. It was the only place everyone from the State could come and express their grievances to bring to the notice of the State government,” he added.

In its virtual outreach, the party wanted to make use of different features of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, mobile channels, blogs and a host of other social media features, Venkat Reddy said. The new move is also to reach out to the tech and mobile savvy younger generation, having a considerable voting percentage in the State.