Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah on Wednesday told his ‘social media warriors’ that they had the power to make any message go viral, whether fake or real, The Wire reported.
While addressing a rally in Rajasthan’s Kota, Shah said, “In the elections that took place in Uttar Pradesh a year ago, BJP’s social media workers made two big WhatsApp groups. One had 15 lakh members, the other 17 lakh. This means a total of 31 lakh.”
He continued, “We are capable of delivering any message we want to the public, whether sweet or sour, true or fake. We can do this work only because we have 32 lakh people in our WhatsApp groups. That is how we were able to make this viral.”
“Uttar Pradesh mein ek saal pehle jo chunaav hua, chunaav ke andar BJP ke social media workers ne do bade WhatsApp group banaye. Ek 15 lakh ka aur ek 17 lakh ka. Kul 32 lakh log…Hum jo chaahein woh sandesh janta tak pahuncha saktey hain, chaahe khatta ho ya meetha ho, sacha ho ya jhoota ho. Yeh kaam kar sakte hain, magar woh is liye ho paaya, hum 32 lakh WhatsApp ka ek group bana ke khade the.”
Earlier in July, news agency PTI had reported that Shah was a member of over 1800 Whatsapp groups, providing “direct information” and “fake news”.
Also Read: This Explains Everything. Amit Shah Is A Member Of 1800 Whatsapp Groups.
“We are trying to bring all the party office-bearers and workers on social media platforms. So far, over 1800 WhatsApp groups have been formed and the number is increasing. The move is aimed to provide direct information and stem fake news,” said Neelkant Bakshi, head (media relations) and co-incharge of Delhi BJP’s social media unit.