Rahul Gandhi fronts Congress media battle in run up to polls

After months of planning, the Congress party believes it is ready with its media strategy to help improve people’s perception of the party and its government’s work in the run up to the elections across states and the national elections. Units that monitor news events by the minute, ‘seeding’ print, electronic and social media with the party’s view and conducting research while ensuring that party members toe the party line are just some of the recommendations that are being implemented by the party. [caption id=“attachment_705460” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] While Rahul may not be visible in the media, the party’s views will be. AP[/caption] Recommended by Digvijaya Singh and approved by Rahul Gandhi, there is now a “Process Manual for the News Response System”, under which a unit will pick events that the party needs to respond to. The unit will provide a daily media report in addition to providing breaking news updates, reported the Indian Express. This unit is reportedly formed with members from Rahul Gandhi’s team that handled his media campaigns, and members from AICC teams who will operate from a ‘war room’, the report said. The Congress has also set up a six member team, with members like Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari, who will have power to override the existing media cell :

This six-member team has been given overriding powers that virtually subsume the functions and responsibility of the official AICC media set-up. Departing from the practice of the Congress president appointing spokespersons, this team has been assigned to “select” spokespersons for the AICC, PCCs and district Congress committees, sources said. It is learnt that this team holds daily meetings, which are also attended by Pankaj Pachauri, the PMO’s communications adviser.

Earlier reports had hinted that the major push of the party’s campaign would be in the social media space particularly the use of Twitter by its more savvy ministers and the use of some like minded celebrities as well. However, like their counterparts, as the elections loom the Congress seems to be working to ensure that public perception is in their favour, even if the voters aren’t. Read the complete Indian Express report on  here