Cong to use social media to woo voters

TPCC decides to appoint as many as 50,000 social media coordinators across the State

Hyderabad: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president N Uttam Kumar Reddy on Sunday said as many as 50,000 social media coordinators would be appointed across the State in the wake of the upcoming panchayat elections. He has directed the party workers to gear up for the elections.

Addressing a meeting of senior leaders at the party office, Uttam Kumar Reddy said the coming panchayat elections in the State would be highly crucial as they would precede the general elections. Therefore, he said, all Congress workers and leaders should actively work to strengthen the party at booth-level. He asked the leaders to actively participate in the voters’ enrolment drive being conducted by the Election Commission of India. He said the Congress leaders should cross check and take measures to rectify the mistakes in the electoral rolls. A committee, headed by former MLA Marri Sashidhar Reddy, and comprising of senior leaders including Kamalakar Rao, Shyama Mohan and G Niranjan, had been constituted to deal with issues pertaining to the electoral rolls.

Uttam Kumar Reddy said AICC vice president Rahul Gandhi had directed all the State units to focus and strengthen party's presence in social media. Therefore, he said 50,000 social media coordinators would be appointed across the State. He said WhatsApp Groups would be created for all 31,656 polling booths and other social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube would be used appropriately to take the party’s message and expose the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government's failure. He said the social media network would be highly useful in the upcoming panchayat elections.

Expressing concern over reports of tampering of EVMs in recently-held elections, Uttam Kumar Reddy demanded that the panchayat elections be held only through ballot papers. He said the government would be pressurised and the TPCC would pass a resolution in this regard. The TPCC chief also announced that the Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s birthday on December 9 would be celebrated as ‘Krithagnatha Dinotsavam’ (Thanksgiving Day) for granting statehood for Telangana. He asked the party cadre to organise grand celebrations across the State.

Uttam Kumar Reddy also directed the party leaders to gather information regarding non-clearance of interest on waived-off crop loans by the TRS government. He asked them to collect information from their respective districts in the next two days by directly meeting farmers. They should fill information in a specially designed form and pass on the information to the TPCC. He announced that the Congress would not rest until the TRS government completely clear all dues of crop loans and their interest.

The TPCC chief also asked the Congress leaders to visit market yards in their districts to check whether farmers were being paid Minimum Support Price and remunerative prices for their produce.

He alleged that large quantities of maize and cotton were being purchased by private parties at lesser prices and not by the government agencies at MSP. He said the procurement of cotton through Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) was highly neglected in Telangana.

The meeting was attended by PAC chairman Dr Geetha Reddy, MLAs Rammohan Reddy, N Padmavathi Reddy and Vamshichand Reddy, TPCC vice president Mallu Ravi, chief spokesperson Dasoju Sravan, former minister Sabitha Indira Reddy, Kisan Cell chairman Kodanda Reddy and other leaders.