Congress leader V.T. Balaram, who heads the KPCC’s digital cell, says the social media post – ‘Bidis and Bihar start with B. Cannot be considered sin anymore’ – appeared without his knowledge (representational image)
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
The Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) has decided to revamp its digital media cell (INC@Kerala) after its controversial post about “Beedis and Bihar” threatened to undermine the political momentum generated by Rahul Gandhi’s 16-day anti-voters’ list fraud campaign ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ in Bihar recently.
KPCC president Sunny Joseph, MLA, told The Hindu that the INC@Kerala handle had not exercised due caution or political prudence while attempting to comment satirically on the Central government’s decision to take beedis off the list of “sin goods”, which attract the highest slab of taxes, ahead of the Assembly elections in the largely rural State of Bihar.
Congress leader V.T. Balaram, who currently heads the KPCC’s digital cell, told reporters in Palakkad that the social media post – ‘Bidis and Bihar start with B. Cannot be considered sin anymore’ – appeared without his knowledge. He said he called Mr. Joseph and reminded him of his earlier request to divest himself of the post. The INC@Kerala later took down the post and tendered an apology.
Warning on overreach
A KPCC insider said the All India Congress Committee (AICC) reportedly felt that the INC in Kerala had overstepped its limits.
He said the AICC had warned INC@Kerala earlier to confine itself to provincial politics and shadow the social media tack set by its digital media cell on national issues.
He said the AICC leadership seemed annoyed that the controversial post had given the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) grist to stoke regionalism and vilify the Congress and its INDIA bloc allies by distorting the comment as an “insult to Biharis”.
It also did not help the INC@Kerala that Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and Congress ally Tejashwi Yadav, who accompanied Mr. Gandhi during the campaign, took strong exception to the “derisive” post.
Earlier, INC@Kerala drew criticism from the AICC for posting a comment – ‘Finally, the Pope got a chance to meet God’ – beneath a photograph of Prime Minister Narendra Modi greeting Pope Francis on the sidelines of the G-7 summit in Italy in June 2024.
The BJP and a section of the Church leadership had taken strong exception to the post, which attempted to play a satire on Mr. Modi’s purported statement that his birth had a divine purpose, in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections.
The KPCC reportedly plans to fine-tune its social media strategy to strengthen the UDF Opposition’s political narrative ahead of Kerala’s local body polls and the 2026 Assembly elections. The party aims to flood social media with sharply captioned video snippets and edited clips to put the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) on the defensive.
According to a KPCC insider, the party also aims to to decentralise the digital cell operations to the Assembly constituency level and tailor them to specific locations and age groups.
Published – September 06, 2025 02:56 pm IST
