Backed by a strong army of 4500 social media volunteers, the ruling YSR Congress party leaves no stone unturned in disseminating information regarding the state government's welfare programmes and swiftly issues fact-check messages to counter misinformation round the clock.
The YS Jagan Mohan Reddy-led party is keen on retaining power in the state and also put up a good show in the Lok Sabha polls. Parliamentary elections and Assembly polls are scheduled to be held simultaneously in the southern state on May 13.
Sajjala Bhargav Reddy, the YSRCP’s social media in-charge underscores the wing's mission--to ensure accurate information reaches every voter in the state while effectively thwarting the opposition's "malicious" campaigns across mainstream and social media platforms.
Bhargav highlighted that in addition to the party's official social media channels across multiple platforms, individuals ranging from those with modest following to those commanding nearly a million followers actively participate in sharing information about the party's initiatives and offering insightful analyses of current events.
"We have a massive network of people who voluntarily work for the party. Starting at the district level, we have a social media committee and at the constituency level, there is one more social media committee and all the way to the mandal level. In all, it represents close to 4500 office bearers exclusively in social media," he told PTI.
"Our aim is to reach every single voter in the state and predominantly we keep our approach organic. The reach is so high that we don't have control where it goes or reaches," Bhargav further said.
YSRCP’s official account on microblogging platform 'X' has 8.86 lakh followers and its YouTube page channel has over five lakh subscribers. Its Instagram account has 1.72 lakh followers while Facebook page has a whooping 1.2 million admirers.
Bhargav outlined that a significant portion of the YSRCP social media team's efforts is dedicated to fact-checking and presenting accurate information to counter the spread of misinformation by the opposition.
He emphasized that the party's WhatsApp groups, spreading from local villages to international communities, boast active membership totaling over a million. Their primary objective is to ensure that chief minister Reddy's messages resonate across the globe while adeptly highlighting the shortcomings of the opposition.
Hitting out at Telugu Desam Party's campaign on social media, the YSRCP leader said the opposition party's approach is completely negative when it comes to sending messages.
He alleged the opposition focused more on disseminating misinformation and hurling insults at CM Jagan rather than articulating their own party's policies for the upcoming May 13 assembly elections.
Jagan, recently in Visakhapatnam, addressed a gathering of the party's social media activists and explained the strategies to be followed while disseminating the information.
