Congress-NCP to tap social media for wider connect in Maharashtra

Mumbai: The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the ruling coalition allies in Maharashtra since over a decade, have decided to take the social media route to reach out to a wider section of the society.

State Congress spokesman Sachin Sawant said the party's Jaipur declaration mentions that social media will play an important role to connect with the younger generation.

"Accordingly, we have set up a social media task force and we are in the process of upgrading our party website, planning a Facebook and Twitter account," he said.

The Congress believes that social media will play an important role to connect with the younger generation.

A Twitter handle in state Congress chief Manikrao Thakare's name '@manikraothakare' was started a fortnight ago. "This handle will issue statements from the party president," Sawant said.

The Facebook and Twitter accounts of the party will give details of party programmes and policies, he added. Every block-level Congress unit will have an IT cell, Sawant said. "We are also looking at the social media model of Gujarat Congress, which did a good job during the recent Assembly elections," he added.

He said video-conferencing facility has already started from Tilak Bhavan office in central Mumbai to 35 district unit Congress offices. "Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan recently connected with the district unit chiefs to discuss organisational matters. He has suggested that the the party's south Mumbai office Gandhi Bhavan also be linked to all district units. Later, all the district units and state headquarters will be connected to the AICC headquarters," he added.

Like the Congress, the NCP too has opened a Twitter handle '@MaharashtraNCP' for news related to the party. NCP spokesman Nawab Malik said, "We will share video, pictures links in future."

Malik's weekly press conferences are uploaded on Youtube. He said he has been getting good feedback from all parts of the state regarding the uploads.

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