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While Congress has upped its social media game, it was felt that increasingly, the party’s posts were being remembered more because of controversies and less because of the content
Supriya Shrinate’s influence comes from the fact that she was considered extremely close to Priyanka Vadra. (PTI)
The Congress party’s social media post, showing the missing head of the prime minister, is now ‘gayab’ [missing]. In a late-night development, the Congress quietly deleted the controversial post. However, earlier in the evening, the party’s social media head, Supriya Shrinate, gave a strong byte, taking potshots at the BJP and defending her party’s controversial post.
Now, Shrinate herself is facing the heat. Late on Tuesday night, the Congress issued an advisory signed by KC Venugopal, asking all its leaders to stick to the party line and the CWC resolution, which had condemned the Pahalgam terror attack and expressed solidarity with the government.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, in a rare gesture, retweeted the advisory, showing her willingness to step into disciplinary matters as well as signal the discontent of the top leadership.
Sources say Rahul Gandhi, who is in Raebareli and will soon visit the Kanpur victim of the Pahalgam attack, held a meeting over the phone with Venugopal, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Priyanka Vadra—all of whom agreed that the post was not in good taste. There was also consensus that multiple comments coming in from Congress leaders were diverting attention from what the party really wanted to talk about.
Interestingly, Shrinate’s debut into active politics came at the bidding of Priyanka Vadra. A former journalist, she contested from Maharajganj in UP, which was her father’s constituency for long, after a meeting with Vadra in Lucknow. Shrinate’s influence comes from the fact that she was considered extremely close to Priyanka Vadra. Aggressive and articulate, she is one of the most high-profile spokespersons of the party.
However, Shrinate’s social media posts have often landed her in trouble. Earlier, she had targeted actor-turned-politician Kangana Ranaut, playing on the fact that she was contesting from Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi. Under fire, she was forced to issue a clarification. But this was the beginning of multiple controversies that she was caught in.
While the Congress has upped its social media game and has some witty popular accounts, it was felt that increasingly, the party’s social media posts were being remembered more because of controversies and less because of the content.
Amidst this, there have been some who are very uncomfortable with the way the social media team has been working under Shrinate, though the leader stuck on because of her aggression on the ground and her proximity to the Gandhis.
The big question now is—Will Shrinate face the axe and be replaced?
Though the party feels that if the BJP can get away from controversies, why not the Congress, but when it comes to issues of terrorism and national security, the Grand Old Party clearly doesn’t want to be seen on the wrong page.
