NEW DELHI: The soon-to-be concluded round of assembly polls saw major political parties embrace virtual campaign with enthusiasm, partly necessitated by the Election Commission's restrictions on account of Covid-19 and also due to the realisation that a lot more people could be reached through social media.
The parties made special arrangements to reach out to voters despite a ban on physical rallies in the first two phases of the Uttar Pradesh election held on February 10 and 14.
BJP
The BJP, governing at the Centre and in four of the five states witnessing elections -- Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur, except Punjab -- appeared upbeat over the manner in which it used social media and the kind of response it received.
Talking to TOI, BJP’s in-charge of national information and technology department Amit Malviya said, “BJP conducted various virtual rallies which were addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi where lakhs of people were mobilised in several locations keeping the Covid guidelines in mind. The same virtual rallies were viewed by millions of people on their social media accounts and on hand-held devices.”
Malviya said the views ranged between 10 lakh and 25 lakh. According to him, BJP had experience of conducting virtual rallies in the 2020 Bihar and 2021 West Bengal assembly elections. “Virtual rallies were not new for us. We do it in every election and we do it with passion,” he said.
Between the West Bengal and the ongoing assembly elections in five states, he said, BJP had relied heavily on technology to push welfare programmes under the ‘sewa hi sangathan’ initiative for cadres right down to the booth level. “The cadres are adept at using technology for political communication and activism,” BJP’s social media chief added.
Congress
Congress's social media department chairperson Rohan Gupta told TOI that the ban on physical rallies provided the party an opportunity to leverage social media to lead the whole campaign when physical campaigning was not possible.
“We organised 10 digital rallies from January last week till February 20. We organised massive hybrid rallies - they were both online on all social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram and constituency-specific rallies - where people could interact with the leaders as well,” Gupta said.
He added that the party’s viewership though virtual rallies was larger than that in physical rallies. “In one of the virtual rallies, the concurrent number of viewers crossed 91,000, which is one of the highest in political Facebook lives,” he said.
Gupta said Congress reached around 5 crore people. “The dependence on digital campaign was higher than the normal campaigns for the first 15 days. Other aspects like candidates reaching out to people, manifesto publicity and last-mile strategic communications could be effectively used on various social media tools to achieve our objective,” he said, adding that social media also provided the principal opposition party with an effective feedback tool for strategic decision-making.
Samajwadi Party
The Akhilesh Yadav-led SP, which initially appeared apprehensive about using social media for virtual rallies, finally claimed an upper hand over its main rival BJP.
SP spokesperson Anurag Bhadauria said, “BJP ko ehsaas ho chukaa hai ki janata ne social media ke jariye Samajwadi Party ko haathon haath liya hai (BJP has realised that the people have lapped up Samajwadi Party through social media)."
He added, “While BJP misused social media, SP used it to convey its views across to the people. The people realised that BJP is a party which speaks lies. They encountered the truth with the help of social media. BJP’s IT (information technology) cell spreads false propaganda, tampers videos and dubs voices to twist facts.”
The SP spokesperson said party workers used social media to the fullest. “Both our experiences - virtual and physical rallies - have been satisfactory. Everyone got to know that the attendance of crowds in BJP’s rallies was thin despite they having the advantage of infrastructure,” he said.
BSP
A day after the poll schedule as announced, BSP supremo Mayawati issued a press note and asked party workers to strictly adhere to the EC guidelines over virtual rallies.
BSP spokesperson Faizan Khan told TOI that party leaders and workers had followed Mayawati’s directives in letter and spirit throughout the campaign. “If any party or leader was most disciplined, they were BSP and Mayawati,” he added.
“BSP’s virtual and physical rallies have given jitters to BJP and SP. Starting from Agra on February 7 till her last public rally in Varanasi on March 3, Mayawati followed all protocols mandated by EC,” he said.
Khan, however, rued that the media did not highlight BSP and Mayawati’s rallies. “The media showed BJP, SP and even Congress’s rallies but ignored those of the BSP. The coverage by the media of BSP’s virtual and physical rallies highlighted the double standards of the media. Initially, they asked where are BSP and Mayawati? Now we ask, where is the media? Why did they not show Mayawati’s rallies?”
The BSP spokesperson claimed that both BJP and SP finally admitted that BSP was a strong contender. “BJP, SP, Congress ke paseeney chhoot gaye. (BJP, SP and Congress are sweating.) The truth has finally come out,” he said.
Khan said BSP has had a memorable experience with the mix of virtual and physical rallies. “The youth, who are most active on social media, participated with enthusiasm. We used social media whenever needed though, as always, we banked upon door-to-door campaigning. We believe that our campaign has not been inferior to BJP, Congress or SP.”
