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Bengaluru, June 23: Karnataka Congress chief D K Shivakumar has urged his party colleagues to be active on social media to counter the propaganda of Bharatiya Janata Party.

Speaking to media persons, the KPCC president said that no more than 20 out of the 68 Congress MLAs are active on social media.

“All those MLAs who are doing well need to be projected. We want leaders, not mere followers. They all should be the face of Congress in Karnataka. Party should not depend on just my face or Siddaramaiah’s,” he said.

Shivakumar’s diktat has resulted in the party’s social media unit scrambling to get leaders to create their accounts.

“We’re pressuring all the party MLAs and leaders. We’re asking their personal assistants or gunmen to operate their accounts if they are not savvy with social media,” KPCC social media chief A N Nataraj Gowda said.

He pointed out that the 20 MLAs who are active on social media include U T Khader, Dinesh Gundu Rao, Priyank Kharge, Krishna Byre Gowda among others.

“We’re also trying to get the accounts verified of those who are beginning to get active. For example, it was only recently that we got the accounts of S R Patil and Vijay Singh verified,” Gowda said.

Tapping the full potential of social media is crucial for the Congress because the BJP has found much success in reaching out to voters through various online platforms.

In fact, ahead of the 2018 Assembly elections, the Congress found that there were 10 ministers and some 40 MLAs who had turned a blind eye towards social media.

Shivakumar said he was also working on putting in place a system in the party under which all developments related to the state and country will be communicated to all party leaders at 10 am every day.

Bengaluru, Jan 6: Activist Irom Chanu Sharmila took part in a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR) at Sir Puttanna Chetty Town Hall here on Sunday.

Sharmila, who came in the protest along with her child, took part in a 'burqa and bindi' protest marking the birth anniversary of social reformer Savitribai Phule.

Protests have erupted across the country over the CAA which grants citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Parsi, Buddhist, and Christian refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh, who came to India on or before December 31, 2014.

Hubli, Feb 19: The Karnataka Police on Wednesday registered a case against unknown persons for assaulting three Kashmiri students in the court premises here.

A suo motu FIR has been registered at Vidyanagar police station of Hubli in which assault charges have been filed against 10 to 15 unknown people.

It can be recalled that on February 17 these three Kashmiri students were attacked in court premises after they were produced in court on charges of sedition.

The Kashmiri students were arrested here on February 15 after their video in which they are seen allegedly raising pro-Pakistan slogans went viral.

The students were studying at the KLE Institute of Technology on a central government scholarship.