As the head of the Kerala Congress digital media cell, P Sarin was credited with creating campaigns and posts for the party that stood out from the deluge during the Lok Sabha elections and after. Now, with his open revolt, Sarin has left the Congress with a narrative mess that it needs to clean up if it hopes to win the coming Palakkad Assembly bypoll.
Incidentally, Sarin’s predecessor in the digital media team, Anil Antony, the son of Congress stalwart A K Antony, also revolted and left the party last year, after which Sarin took over. Anil Antony is now in the BJP.
One of the most memorable posts conceived by the social media team under Sarin was on June 5, a day after the Lok Sabha results. With the BJP failing to get a majority and needing to form a coalition to retain power, including with allies TDP and JD-U, the Kerala Congress handle posted a picture of Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav talking to TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu. The caption read: “Don’t panic Modiji, it’s an old pic.”
The post on X got more than 4 million impressions and over 9,000 reposts. Sarin’s team continued to hit the mark with similar posts, based on political humour, minus the vitriol of political discourse.
The team also had its share of controversies, particularly when it was forced to delete a tweet – not much after – involving a picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pope Francis, after it drew flak from the Christian community.
Speaking to The Indian Express in August about the Kerala Congress’s social media strategy, Sarin had said: “It’s a special entity that the party has convened… Sometimes we put down the music (for the videos) and then go for the lyrics. Many times, we come up with the lyrics first and then find the best tune.”
Under him, the Kerala Congress X handle was operated by 10 people, all of whom Sarin said were “volunteers”, who took “no money”, with some of them settled abroad. “They work on a voluntary basis, out of dedication towards the party,” he said.
Sarin had also spoken about the need to be “factually right” while “developing an emotional connect with people”. “We wanted to keep it simple, and I think that is what people have liked about our content.”
In his resignation from the Congress, Sarin didn’t pull punches either. A medical graduate-turned-bureaucrat-turned politician, who joined the Congress in 2016, the 40-year-old lashed out at the party for picking Rahul Mamkoottathil as its candidate for the Palakkad bypoll.
“The Congress should review the decision… otherwise it will face a repeat of the Haryana Assembly poll debacle,” Sarin said Thursday. “The party should not succumb to the demands of a few leaders… If Mamkoottathil gets defeated in the bypoll, it will be Rahul Gandhi who will be getting defeated.”
He went on to attack senior Congress leader V D Satheesan personally, accusing him of “hijacking” the party. “He has a soft approach towards the BJP. He is responsible for the collapse of the Congress in Kerala. Mamkoottathil is a little Satheesan,” Sarin said.
This is as direct a message as it gets from the former Kerala Congress digital media head. The BJP has high hopes from Palakkad bypoll, as it was one of the few seats where the party finished runner-up in the 2021 Assembly elections. In the recent Lok Sabha elections, the BJP’s Suresh Gopi won from the neighbouring Thrissur, giving the party its first-ever parliamentary seat from Kerala.
Incidentally, Sarin also contested the 2021 Assembly elections that returned the CPI(M) to power in a historic win, losing from the Ottapalam seat.
with ENS, Thiruvananthapuram
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