In a bid to tackle BJP’s aggressive social media campaign ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress has decided to form a team of 30,000 ‘cyber sainiks’.

Banerjee has also promised to reward those who perform best in countering BJP’s posts on social media.

In a telephonic address to party workers at the ‘Digital Conclave’ in Kolkata on Monday, Banerjee said, “I will make a data bank of party workers who would do an excellent job in taking the government and party’s achievements to people across the state through social media. I will also make a list of those who are actively countering BJP and other parties’ malicious attempts at defaming us. Their bio data will be with us and we will reward them for their work.”
 

The TMC chief also asked these future cyber warriors to compete with each other for the party to fare better in social media war against opposition parties.
 

Banerjee added, “There will be competition among these youths in every district who are working hard to highlight our achievements and counter the BJP with facts and figures. Not only Bangla, you should respond to them (BJP) in Hindi as well, for a broader reach.”

Referring to RSS and Mohan Bhagwat’s speech at the World Hindu Congress, she said, “They are now ‘Imported RSS’. They are dividing the country in the name of religion. I would like to urge all of you to counter such dangerous trends. I want my digital team to be the best in the world. Please teach your family members as well on how to use social media to counter attempts at dividing Bengal.”

Mamata’s nephew and Lok Sabha MP, Abhishek Banerjee, added, “There are 294 Assembly seats in Bengal and in each of them, I want 100 ‘cyber sainiks’. As per the plan, there will be roughly around 30,000 ‘cyber sainiks’ and I want them to wage a cyber war against BJP’s vindictive politics.”

The MP further asked party workers to get back at BJP and their supporters’ digital handles with facts and figures to expose their lies.

“Please be careful in choosing your words. Don’t use foul language. That is not our culture. Consider your smartphones as your weapon to fight the opposition. Also, I want these 30,000 ‘cyber sainiks’ to convince those who left the party to return to TMC. Bring back two people every week to the party fold.”

While raising concern over Trinamool’s weak social media presence, Abhishek said, “We are weak on Twitter. Concentrate on that as well. Soon, we will have another Digital Conclave and then I will request our party chief Mamata Banerjee to personally grace the occasion.”

TMC’s Social Media Cell is headed by Kargil war veteran Colonel Diptanshu Chaudhary (Retd) and Suparno Moitra, who served as the regional director (East) of Nasscom. Chaudhary was previously with the BJP. After a brief stint, he quit the saffron brigade to join Trinamool.