Ahead of assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, the Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee has set a criterion of 15,000 likes on Facebook pages, 5000 followers on Twitter, and a WhatsApp group of booth-level workers for aspiring candidates hoping to get a party ticket. ANI tweeted a copy of the decision issued by the state party unit.
Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) writes in a letter to ticket aspirants, ‘candidates in upcoming polls must have 15,000 likes on their FB page, 5000 followers on Twitter,& a WhatsApp group of booth-level workers.They must like&retweet every post on MPCC’s twitter account’ pic.twitter.com/tvrh9aAVJp
— ANI (@ANI) September 3, 2018
It says that party has decided to evaluate how active the aspiring candidates are on social media. And the social media activity will be evaluated on the basis of the following criteria:
- Must have a Facebook page.
- Must have a Twitter account.
- Must be active on WhatsApp.
- Must have 15,000 likes on FB, 5,000 followers on Twitter, and must have a Whatsapp group of booth-level workers.
- Must Retweet and like all tweets by Madhya Pradesh Congress’s Twitter account and must share and like all Facebook posts of Madhya Pradesh Congress’s Facebook account.
This is mandatory not only for ticket aspirants but also for all party office bearers and current MLAs of the party also.
The order says that the Congress office-bearers, current MLAs and ticket aspirants must submit the detail of their Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp activities to the Social Media and IT Cell of Madhya Pradesh Congress by 15th September 2018.
Interesting to note here is that, before Uttar Pradesh assembly elections in 2017, BJP also had determined similar criteria for aspiring candidates for the election. Although the party did not issue an official order like MP Congress has done, according to reports party president Amit Shah told the ticket hopefuls that social media presence of the candidates will be a factor in deciding ticket allocation. Given that BJP won a spectacular victory in the assembly election, virtually eliminating all of the opposition in the state, the Madhya Pradesh unit of Congress party seems to be following the similar strategy in picking to most winnable candidates.
