THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Now, one of the finding of the CPM’s in its post-poll post-mortem of election result is that unnecessary interference made by cyber comrades in issues including Sabarimala row proved disastrous for the LDF in the recent Lok Sabha election.
The CPM’s evaluation is that posts and comments made in social media by some pro-Left persons resulted in distancing a huge chunk of people from the party. This affected the party in the election to some extent.
On the basis of the above findings, CPM is reportedly getting ready for a change of style and presentation on the social media.
The CPM decided to begin official social media pages and enhance its presence on the social media as the BJP increased its influence on people through social media. Thus official Facebook pages at State/district level started appearing. Besides this, basic units of parties as well as strong CPM loyalists also started opening accounts on their own. Among them, people like Porali Shaji got wide acceptance, following which many cyber fighters started popping out day by day.

But as the party had no control over them, many undesired and unwanted content started creeping in to Facebook pages. Many fake accounts bearing the symbols and flag of the party bubbled up. Most of them overstepped the line of decency. Many comments made over Sabarimala row lacked quality, which ultimately turned away hereditary voters from the party.

Though the party had given strict instructions to stop character assassination of opposite candidates and to do campaigns by highlighting the achievements of the government, they fell on deaf ears. Comments against Alathur UDF candidate Ramya Haridas was pointed out as an example for this. The attempts made by cyber comrades to support M Vijayaraghavan who had linked her to Muslim League leader P K Kunhalikutty also resulted in negative reactions on the social media.