It is election season and in a beautiful display of vibrant democracy, everyone seems to be talking only about it. Supporters of politicians and political parties have taken to social media to voluntarily campaign for the ones they support. From sending messages on WhatsApp to changing display image and name of WhatsApp groups, the election mood has firmly set in.

All, except Congress. Which seems clueless as even their lone campaign, ‘Chowkidar Chor Hai’ seems to have backfired as BJP and its supporters hijacked that ‘insult’ into a badge of pride. Congress’ secret weapon, Priyanka Gandhi makes Rahul Gandhi appear well clued in on what is happening in the world. For example this ‘atak gayi’ video.

Priyanka Gandhi hai to Rahul ki hi behan ?? pic.twitter.com/TZN1iHWzF9 — Chowkidar Hardik (@Humor_Silly) March 18, 2019

It can be seen in the above video, Priyanka, during her monologue forgets what she was saying and admits how she got ‘stuck’.

Amidst all this, some people on Twitter pointed out how Congress-friendly journalists seem to have taken upon themselves to help Congress form their election strategies. Almost on cue, everyone woke up to realise that Congress does not seem to have any plan for Bihar, the state which has 40 Lok Sabha constituencies.

Disappointed to see my favorite student reduced to liking tweets than getting actively involved in seat sharing. pic.twitter.com/Nc8I62Z7pK — Eminent Intellectual (@padhalikha) March 19, 2019

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But if you try and understand the nuances, it seems like they are building ground for alliances in states where Congress has been reduced to such a non-entity that they are fighting for survival.

There have been feelers sent out how Congress leaders are ‘upset’ that the party leadership has failed to forge alliances. This time to Bihar UPA ally, RJD.

Every single non Congress opposition leader I’ve spoken to in recent days is befuddled, exasperated and angry at the Congress Party refusal to close alliances. Advantage Modi. https://t.co/1u932zppHi — barkha dutt (@BDUTT) March 17, 2019

NDA to announce Bihar candidates tomorrow but UPA still a divided house there. Tejashwi’s veiled attack on Congress says the same thing as other allies have been saying: Congress is not fighting to defeat Modi. https://t.co/dwZtngOb90 — Shivam Vij (@DilliDurAst) March 17, 2019

More ‘neutral journalists’ joined in, with more ‘analysis’.

Need for nuance on Congress alliances:

1 Jharkhand, Kar, TN: Deal Done

2 UP: Neither side really wanted it

3 AP, WB: Alliance wont help much

4 Bihar, Maha, J&K: old alliances which should’ve been sealed by now

5 Delhi: Alliance can help, party seems confused

4&5 are main problem — Aditya Menon (@AdityaMenon22) March 19, 2019

See how Bihar makes an appearance again?

UP, Bihar, Delhi. Congress seriously needs to get out of its delusional stupor. It needs allies more than the other way round. The sooner they accept, the better #LokSabhaElections2019 — Saif Ullah Khan (@saifizm) March 19, 2019

And so does Delhi. We had earlier reported that how after weeks of deliberations, snubbing and begging, Aam Aadmi Party and Congress may finally get into an alliance for 2019 general elections even though it is highly unlikely they will be allies for 2020 state assembly elections.

Has everyone really just woken up or is this a well-coordinated attempt to set a stage for alliances coming together? That when Congress does finally join hands with Aam Aadmi Party, it does not appear like a desperate attempt, but just a well planned out strategy? Such seemingly coordinated tweets coming from ‘friendly’ media persons in an attempt to set a narrative or ground is not something new.

This is not the first time the friendly media has come to Congress’ rescue. After winning Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh elections, when Congress President Rahul Gandhi could not zero in on the Chief Minister’s name due to various contenders, the media personalities came to Rahul Gandhi’s rescue by saying how a few days’ delay is no big deal because BJP took over a week to name Yogi Adityanath as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister.

Yes and I wonder how ‘people are suffering in MP, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh’ narrative being built because of this delay. Let’s not forget Bjp took a week to decide on the name of Yogi Adityanath as the UP CM. https://t.co/yOkmhasDUs — Marya Shakil (@maryashakil) December 13, 2018

A half an hour later, The Wire journalist Rohini had a similar tweet.

BJP took a week to announce UP CM so a couple of days isn’t a big deal. https://t.co/YkWtT8VE3v — Rohini Singh (@rohini_sgh) December 13, 2018

Some journalists, as we know, have been known for trying to push a narrative through their tweets and articles for quite some time now.

The BJP seems to be struggling in UP as of now — Rohini Singh (@rohini_sgh) February 6, 2017

Solid road show in Agra by Akhilesh & RG. City at cusp of Braj & West UP regions in Phase 1 of polling. City plastered with RG-AY hoardings — Aman Sharma (@AmanKayamHai_ET) February 3, 2017

Poetry & praise for Akhilesh reaching crazy levels on this stage. UP poet ends his speech with..”yeh parinda dil mein ghosla banata raha ..” — Vasudha Venugopal (@vasudha_ET) January 22, 2017

We all know how that turned out. Some people hopped on from one propaganda to another, but modus operandi remained the same. A well-coordinated attempt to set base for when Congress and Rahul Gandhi finally says or does something, it doesn’t really appear outlandish.

And as you could see, it is not just a one-off incident. There are many, many such well-coordinated tweets which make one question the integrity and independence of the PR-machinery masquerading as ‘journalists’.