New Delhi: To launch the vice president of Congress Rahul Gandhi, Congress has launched a massive propaganda blitzkrieg in the run up to the Lok Sabha elections.
Rahul and not Congress president Sonia Gandhi appears to be face of the campaign.
Congress has initiated a nation-wide Rs700 crore mass publicity drive aimed at wooing various sections of the electorate well-before the poll code of conduct comes into force.
The advertisements are being aired through television, radio, newspapers, hoardings etc.
Congress has purchased space on hundreds of BEST buses to display its ads featuring Rahul Gandhi in Mumbai.
The effort appears to be to give a make over to the image of the organisation which has been at the receiving end of opposition attacks after a raft of scams.
A senior Congress party functionary said, “We have decided to target each group and strata of the society. We are airing the advertisements on television, radio and news papers and displaying on hoardings at prime spots. Our government had done lot of work in terms of social welfare and economic development, but we grossly failed to market them. The current campaign will neutralise the negative propaganda of the opposition and project a positive image of the party.”
Incidentally, the UPA government too has been spending crores of rupees highlighting the “achievements” of the Manmohan Singh government. These ads have pictures of Sonia Gandhi since she is chairperson of the UPA.
US-based Burson-Marsteller and Dentsu India, a Japanese publicity major have been roped in to give a massive image makeover for the party and its vice-president Rahul Gandhi, whose recent television interview was a major setback for his image.
These firms will create the buzz on social media by posting Congress-related tweets and Rahul Gandhi’s speeches.
A senior leader of Congress said, “The saffron brigade and BJP prime minister candidate Narendra Modi’s group are very active on social media. Now, we will surely counter them by changing our working style. These firms also helping us selecting the content that would connect us to the people in large number. Our ad campaign costing Rs700 crore has already created buzz and generated the positive debate in favour of Congress.”
The main points and schemes on the focus of Congress are food security bill, right to information act, NREGA—government employment scheme, Aadhar card, land reform policy, etc.
Gurdas Kamat, Congress party general secretary and Lok Sabha election core group member said that the publicity department has been handled by Jairam Ramesh.
A senior state government leader said, “Rahul Gandhi is our leader and prime ministerial candidate. Modi has been spending crores on his election campaign . The BJP is spending much more than us. Our publicity budget is peanuts compared to the BJP.”
He also claimed that even party does not believe in publicity and said, “But today’s is the marketing world. We are doing good work and we still you have to market it. We are victims of the era of marketing. If the opposition is aggressively doing it, then why should we lag behind.”
Bureau Report
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