Facebook lesson for Trinamul in BJP fight

 More than five lakh Bengal residents, mainly aged between 18 and 35, marked themselves 'safe from the saffron party' in the past six days

Snehamoy Chakraborty   |   Bolpur(Birbhum)   |  28.10.20 : The Trinamul Congress launched a new campaign on social media — “Mark yourself safe from BJP” — at the start of Durga Puja to assess the ruling party’s support base, especially among youngsters.

More than five lakh Bengal residents, mainly aged between 18 and 35, marked themselves “safe from BJP” in the past six days.

Trinamul leaders have said the concept is along the lines of the Facebook safety check feature, activated by the social media giant of Mark Zuckerberg during natural or man-made disasters and terror-related incidents, to promptly determine whether people in the affected geographical area are safe.

Sources said the drive was triggered by a remark by chief minister Mamata Banerjee at the end of her rally in Calcutta against the Hathras incident on October 3 when she identified the BJP as the “biggest pandemic”.

Leaders of Mamata’s party said the drive had been getting “good” response.

“Nowadays, it is a social media trend for people to mark themselves safe from calamities, natural or man-made. The BJP is a man-made calamity that is finishing the country. The younger generations seem to have loved the campaign,” said a Trinamul Rajya Sabha member.

“During Puja, the party does not undertake full-fledged political activities, while young people spend a lot of time on social media. That’s why we picked this time,” he added.

Trinamul sources said poll consultant Prashant Kishor and his team I-Pac launched a website (savebengalfrombjp.com) on October 21 for the campaign.

“The site contains questions such as ‘Are you going to speak out against dictatorship?’, ‘Do you take a stand against inequality?’, ‘Are you against hatred?’…. It is a single window website and people can mark themselves safe from the BJP by one touch on the screen of their smartphones. Over 5.26 lakh people have done so already. Besides, over 82,000 registered with the Facebook page of the site,” said a Trinamul leader.

The BJP’s IT cell has been running a similar campaign against Trinamul, called “Ar Noy Annay (Injustice, no more)”, for months.

“The BJP uses fabricated stories, lies and a lot of deliberately misleading content in its social media campaigns. Our chief minister has been bitterly critical of this regularly. Our campaign uses no lies, nothing fake,” said a Trinamul leader.

A Bengal minister said the drive would help the party get a better understanding of the areas of the support base and also identify places with a lack of response.

“Leaders in all districts have asked to share the link in their local social media groups…. It would be easier for us to focus on those pockets from where the number of participants is low,” he said.

“Timely repair and damage-control at those places will be very helpful ahead of the polls,” he added.