Amit Shah is expected to chalk out a strategy to synchronise the party’s external communication in the meeting. Amit Shah is expected to chalk out a strategy to synchronise the party’s external communication in the meeting.

BJP president Amit Shah has convened a meeting of senior members of the teams that led the party’s social media campaign during the general election. Unhappy with the performance of party spokespersons in TV debates and anxious over the BJP losing its edge on social media, Shah is expected to chalk out a strategy to synchronise the party’s external communication in the meeting.

Convened next week, the meeting will be held at the party headquarters in the national capital and is likely to be attended by senior members of the BJP’s IT cell as well as the outside support groups from Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore.

Sources said party workers have, of late, been clamouring for an overhaul of the team of the spokespersons as well for focussed efforts at regaining the lost territory on social media platforms, particularly Twitter. “Much before the general election last year, the leadership team had started the practice of picking the issues of the day. Once the issues were decided, we would ask our volunteers to flesh them out and gather facts and figures on them. This would help us take charge of conversations on social media. Besides, we passed on the inputs to spokespersons who participated in TV debates,” said a senior member of the party’s IT cell.

The sources said within a few months of the party forming the government at the Centre, this practice lost steam and the team of volunteers disintegrated because of the lack of proper leadership. Besides the drop in sentiment about the BJP and PM Narendra Modi, party spin-masters also think that its abysmal performance in the Delhi Assembly poll was largely on account of a direction-less public communication strategy. “Social media played a crucial role in building positive sentiment for the BJP and Narendra Modi during its LS campaign. This was carried over by the other media and helped in accentuating the buzz but we lost the zeal once the party formed the government and paid the price for the callousness in Delhi elections,” said another person who led a team of social media volunteers.

“Look at the pinstripe suit controversy about the PM… we didn’t have a team to defend us,” said a senior party leader.

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