After BJP's aggressive social media campaign in 2014, Congress built up a team of volunteers across states. The team has learnt the tricks of the trade and can get a topic trending in a few hours, leaders claim.

Outfoxed by BJP prime minister nominee Narendra Modi's aggressive social media campaign in the 2014 national elections, the Congress has come a long way in registering its presence on the fast-growing platform.

Though plans for a Congress social media presence were made as early as January 2013, when Rahul Gandhi was made the party vice-president, the slow start cost the Grand Old Party dear in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls as young IT-savvy voters sided with Modi.

Sources acknowledged the late start but said that by the time the AICC put up its social media team, the rivals had spread enough "negativity" against it. "The initial challenge was to fight the fake and paid volunteers of the BJP," AICC secretary Girish Chodankar told MAIL TODAY.

"We were using social media but our resources were scattered. I tried to build up a team of volunteers across states," NSUI member Hasiba Amin, who monitors social media and coordinates with the AICC team, told MAIL TODAY.

Over the past one year, the Congress social media team learnt the rope and expanded its presence. According to sources, the party got two to three crore hits on Facebook and around 10 million impressions on Twitter.

"We can now trend a hashtag in a few hours," Congress MP Deepender Hooda, in charge of AICC social media team, told MAIL TODAY.

Sources claimed they are now able to beat both BJP and AAP in trending issues.

The results are better as proper systems have been in place, including a small team in Delhi to decide on the strategy with coordinators at the state level followed by small groups at the district level.

The effort, said party leaders, was required as communication from a political party has become a daily affair and plays an important role in shaping public opinion and countering rival parties.

Most of the social media volunteers comprise elected office-bearers of the NSUI and the Youth Congress and are the first to respond to any issue related to students.

Though the party view is usually followed, there are exceptions as well.

"Recently we posted messages against the party view on changes to the juvenile justice law as students were deeply concerned over it," said Hasiba.

However, on issues like the National Herald case and India-Pakistan relations, the AICC team takes over.

Congress sources said the Modi government came to power based on high expectations but has been low on delivery. "The BJP usually is rhetorical. We counter them with facts," said a source.

Though the Grand Old Party has made a social media comeback, sources involved with the process said all this was regular work and there was a lot of room for improvement. "We have not done anything out of the box, just regular work. There are miles to go," said a senior leader who did not wish to be named.