The intention is to counter the narrative of the prime minister and BJP which shows Rahul Gandhi as childish (balak buddhi) as well as woo youth voters
The Congress is attempting to expand its digital footprint — and leading the efforts is the Young Congress, which thinks it is making its voice heard in the digital space. For the Congress has unleashed an aggressive campaign to counter the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “balak buddhi” (childlike mind) jibe at Rahul Gandhi.
The aggression shown by Rahul Gandhi as the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, where he attacked PM Modi personally several times in the recently concluded session, has given ammunition to the BJP to label him (again) a non-serious and immature politician. Along with the old “Pappu” tag, the BJP has now received a new ammo in its arsenal following the PM’s “balak buddhi” tirade. It is this narrative that the Congress plans to counter aggressively. Having bagged 99 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats in the 2024 elections, the Congress is on the front foot, calling the PM “bael buddhi” — roughly translated to someone who has little intelligence.
But is this campaign a hit? The BJP says that most of the traction is due to bots or handles that have been bought by the Congress. Not just this, many of these campaigns are being pushed by Congress-friendly YouTubers. The Congress has strategically asked the Youth Congress to push these campaigns aggressively and the idea is to tap into young voters.
Sources in the Congress’s social media team say that traditionally, campaigns pushed by the party through their youth wing have done well because they have also been aggressive on the ground. The sources also say that this could help them tap into youth voters. They hope that these campaigns will be like the woodpecker that will slowly chip away at the macho image of the prime minister.
There are multiple agencies that have been hired to ensure that the Congress captures the narrative in the social media space. For the party, it’s all about playing the mind game. Congress realised belatedly that the digital space — which helped the BJP in 2014 — matters. On the path of course correction, the Congress, for now, wants to go aggressively and make its campaign count.
