Narendra Modi and the BJP’s fascination with the social media is well known. While the Gujarat chief minister makes many of his statements on Twitter, like his Jammu and Kashmir counterpart Omar Abdullah, and the main opposition party has for long had a special team to look after social media, the Congress is finally taking the plunge.

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Union minister Kapil Sibal had made the point on the importance of social media in the current political milieu during a session on emerging political challenges at the party's ‘chintan shivir’ in Jaipur back in January. Party vice-president Rahul Gandhi made it official on Monday (July 22) while addressing party workers, including state spokespersons and key AICC and Youth Congress members. According to reports in today’s newspapers, Gandhi, as also other senior leaders who addressed day one of the two-day session at Jawahar Bhavan in the national capital, laid special emphasis on effective use of social media to counter the opposition.

The party also launched a new multimedia platform called Khidkee for its leaders to get their news on the party.

But are both the ruling and main opposition parties overestimating a largely urban phenomenon called social media? After all, large swathes of India do not have any access to social media.