In February, elections are going to be held in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa, and Manipur. On the other hand, amid the third wave of the corona epidemic in the country, there is a great increase in the use of social media in the campaign for these assembly elections being held in five states.
Voting has started on February 10.
In the country's largest state Uttar Pradesh, voting is to be held in 7 phases. The last phase of voting will be held there on March 7.
Because of this, many parties had started campaigning from December itself. But in January, when the polling dates were announced, the Election Commission of India banned the holding of traditional rallies or roadshows because of the corona infection.
The Election Commission later extended these restrictions till February 11. However, political parties have now been given many relaxations. For example, now a rally can be held in an open space with 1,000 people. At the same time, permission has also been given to go from house to house with 20 people.
In such a situation, political parties have resorted to various social media platforms through the Internet to reach the people by promoting their party in these states. That's why Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, and Instagram are being heavily used to run promotional campaigns.
Traditional promotional rules apply to digital campaigns
Political parties are using various methods to woo voters through social media. Many parties are resorting to captivating songs to convey their party's ideology to the voters. They are putting these songs on Facebook and YouTube.
Many political parties have created separate WhatsApp groups for each seat, where the election campaign and related propaganda material are being shared continuously.
According to a report by the English daily The Hindu, the Election Commission has clearly said that the same rules will apply to the costs and expenses of virtual election campaigns running on the Internet, which apply to traditional election campaigns.
In this report, a top official of the Election Commission was told that the candidates will have to open a bank account for this and submit the details of the expenses with the commission.
Also, the model code of conduct banning speech provoking people and misuse of government machinery will now be applicable in the case of social media platforms as well.
What do the figures say?
Social media has now emerged as an essential tool for communication. It has invented new methods of political mobilization. In the last decade, there has been a huge jump in the activism of political parties on social media.
In 2013-14, the Bharatiya Janata Party started adopting social media as a political tool. Since then, his power on social media has continuously increased. BJP currently has 42 lakh followers on Instagram. There are 40.1 million followers on YouTube, 1.67 million on Facebook, and 1.73 million on Twitter.
Compared to BJP, the opposition Congress has 10 lakh followers on Instagram, 84 lakhs on Twitter, 17.7 lakhs on YouTube, and 62 lakhs on Facebook.
A report by Hindi news channel Republic Bharat states that the responsibility of running the party's social media campaigns in the five states where elections are being held has been entrusted to Union Minister of State for Information and Technology, Rajiv Chandrashekhar.
At the same time, according to a report by English news website NDTV, the BJP believes that the real reason for its power over the virtual medium is its "huge army" of IT volunteers. In this report, a senior BJP leader said that the party has about 14 lakh, active registered volunteers.
At the same time, the Congress party is far behind the BJP on the social media platform.
However, Congress's social media head Rohan Gupta said in an interview with English news channel India Today, "The party has made a comprehensive plan to increase its capability digitally. We have prepared a blueprint for holding a virtual rally. We have There is a database of phone numbers, while the party's grassroots workers have been identified.
The Aam Aadmi Party, which is fighting the elections in Punjab and Goa, has started its campaign on social media on January 25 with the name "Ek Mauka Kejriwal Ko".
According to Hindi news channel Aaj Tak, the party has appealed to the people of Delhi to campaign on social media about the "good works" done by the Delhi government.
According to the channel, party chief and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal said, "Tell you people on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook how you got to benefit from our government. Also, appeal to the people to give Kejriwal a chance."
At present, Aam Aadmi Party has 58 lakh followers on Twitter, 23 lakhs on YouTube, 6.30 lakhs on Instagram, and 52 lakhs on Facebook.
Trying to reach people by making the content viral
To reach more and more voters and attract young voters towards their party, various political parties are spreading the content in the form of viral trends on social media.
In Uttar Pradesh, BJP's election campaign was started by PM Modi through a virtual rally on 31 December. For this, the party shared the link of that virtual rally among the local people there. Along with this, studios were also set up in various electoral areas so that small groups can listen to the PM's address.
Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra started her party's virtual campaign in Uttar Pradesh through a 30-minute live chat on Facebook.
According to a report by the English website The Wire, farmer organizations and student groups are also resorting to hashtags, memes, and spoofs to raise their demands. Farmer groups are raising the issue of delays in fulfilling promises made to end their nearly year-long protests. At the same time, student groups are complaining about the failure of the BJP government to provide employment.
In Punjab, there is fierce competition between the Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress on social media these days. A video made on a Hindi song is going viral on Facebook and Twitter.
In this video, Aam Aadmi Party's CM candidate Bhagwant Mann, Congress state president Navjot Singh Sidhu and current CM Charanjit Singh Channi have been shown. This video has been viewed nearly 1 million times on Facebook.
BJP has an edge due to economic power
A top official of a digital media company based in Noida, Uttar Pradesh told in an interview to the India Today website that the digital medium does not necessarily provide equal opportunities to everyone.
He said, "Now everyone has the equal opportunity because of the Internet. But money becomes important in this. So whoever has more money, his campaign becomes better."
BJP is very strong in this matter, so it seems to be making an edge over other parties.
In March last year, the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), an organization working on electoral reforms, reported that the BJP is the richest political party with assets of over Rs 2,700 crore. At the same time, Congress came second with Rs 929 crore.
According to a report in Hindustan Times, during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP left everyone behind in terms of political advertisements being broadcast on digital platforms.
According to the data of Google and Facebook, between February 2019 and April 2019, the BJP gave advertisements worth Rs 25 crore on Facebook, Instagram, Google, and YouTube. In comparison, Congress got ads worth Rs 1.42 crore aired on both the same platforms.
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