What @ShashiTharoor should (once he's informed) do for Cong on Twitter

For a party that has been perhaps the last off the blocks when it comes to engaging with voters on social media platforms the Congress is hoping to play catch up by roping in one of its star performers in this space, Minister of State for Human Resource Development Shashi Tharoor. Oil Minister Veerappa Moily’s son-in-law Anand Adkoli is reportedly overseeing the party’s preparations: the All India Congress Committee is readying its Twitter launch and a sub-group headed by, who else but the ever controversial Digvijaya Singh, are preparing to set up a team to “swamp the social media space”, reported the Indian Express. [caption id=“attachment_655128” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Screengrab of Shashi Tharoor’s Twitter page.[/caption] So where does Tharoor, who has nearly 1.7 million followers on Twitter, come in? According to sources quoted in the report, the Congress party may look to its minister to retweet their tweets about the government’s achievements and ’the burning issues of the day’. Other leaders like Digvijaya Singh, Milind Deora and Manish Tewari are also expected to chip in by ensuring that the views of the Congress party are adequately represented on Twitter even as the party reaches out to personalities like Shah Rukh Khan, Shabana Azmi and other ’like minded’ personalities. The minister of state may be on board, though he claims to have no clue about his crucial role in the scheme of things. Tharoor tweeted saying that he was not informed about this new development but wouldn’t mind contributing to the party achieving its political goals: https://twitter.com/ShashiTharoor/status/310996655975579649 https://twitter.com/ShashiTharoor/status/310979910846017538 The Congress’ visibility on social media has been on the rise, the most recent event being the Google Hangout conducted by Finance Minister P Chidambaram. Other ministers are also waking up to getting social media assistants to ensure they are viewed favourably on social media. The party’s push on social media is hardly surprising given it was a major topic of discussion during the it’s recent Chintan Shivir.