(Image source from: Congress bets big on Twitter)

From being teeheed to drawing bad press with his tweet-escapades, Congress man and avid tweeter Shashi Tharoor has indeed come a long way. But seems his party is all set to outdo him now!

Congress has organized a first-of-its-kind workshop to train its spokespersons on social media.  And who else but social media whiz  like Tharoor and Manish Tewari to kick off the venture.

While Tharoor and Tewari have been called in to address the party gathering, official representatives from Twitter and Facebook will explain how social media are the best medium for political parties to communicate with the people globally.

Although digital penetration in India is paltry as compared to the west, Congress believes it can tilt favor of the urban youth towards it through social media.

Although BJP was the first one to draw mileage out of social media, Congress wasn't too willing to let the saffron leaders have a free run there. “A cell was formed under MP Deepender Hooda to beef up the party muscle on social media,” sources claim.

According to sources, “Congress will soon hold training sessions for "IT cells" to be formed in the states, localizing the party's microblogging response even further.”

To insiders, Tharoor epitomizes the arrival of social media in Congress consciousness. After he faced a flak for his former tweets, he has now been picked to sensitize partymen on handling social media.

Explaining his participation, a Congress leader said the junior HRD minister has among the “highest followers in the country and is best suited to inform partymen on optimal and smart use of the new medium.”

AW: Suchorita Dutta