new delhi it would be an honour if you were associated with us silence obviously you will be paid accordingly this is what shreya name changed an entrepreneur based in maharashtra was told by a leader of a national political party no he did not want her to join the party at least not on paper he wanted to recruit her if you have an impressive cv you can earn a million this election season you just need to learn the art of trolling so what is political trolling according to a popular online dictionary it is the act of using emotions lies false accusations and broken logic to undermine your opponent and win an argument in a political arena this often involves twisting various sources such as religion to look like they say that your views are right motives include but are not limited to for money power fun and for the lulz political parties like to call such people volunteers all you need is a decent amount of followers on social media command over language willingness to promote your partys ideology without asking too many questions and most importantly the ability to troll your rivals to no end shreya who joined social media website twitter a little over a year ago was approached by both congress and bjp workers to work for them the reason they wanted her she was an independent voice translation she was expected to help propagate political parties philosophy and policies on the social media since she is not associated with any political party and given her decent background tweeple wouldnt have questioned her motives she is not the only one arjun name changed a medical professional based abroad who actively tweets on different topics was also approached by a national political partys youth wing leader arjun who joined twitter in 2010 started actively tweeting in june 2011 primarily sharing his views music sports recent events life and politics his tryst with political trolls started the day he tweeted some information about the gujarat cm narendra modi as arjun started taking these trolls head on he realized that his follower count was increasing dramatically it didnt take long for some prominent political leaders to start following him and engaging in chats with him after his tweets got featured on a television debate he was approached by the recruiters their proposition was very simple he was asked to write blogs promoting the partys agenda and policies in return he was promised up to rs 10000 or more per blog depending on the word limit while journalists are often termed as paid media concept of paid trolls is still considered to be an urban myth political parties are now adopting aggressive strategies to attack and counterattack each other on the social mediapassing the buck it is impossible an official aicc member would never indulge in this claims congress spokesperson sanjay jha when counterquestioned he admits that very very few people are being