Soon after the Nationalist Congress Party workers “vandalised” the Aam Aadmi Party office in Mumbai and AAP activists were picked up marching with brooms to the NCP office for a protest sweep on Saturday, party volunteers uploaded the episode on YouTube for wider viewing.
And, it's not just YouTube. Twitter and Facebook are also being used to the hilt by the “young blood” in the AAP.
A social media team, mainly students of communications and media courses, roam around with a video camera to capture moments and upload them real time. “The videographers took a short break while at the police station to offer namaz. That was the only time there was no live feed on YouTube on Saturday,” Radhika Nair, a member of the party's campaign and operations team, said.
Maharashtra AAP convener Anjali Damania said that involvement of youngsters in the party gave a whole new spin. “They come up with ideas that one could never have thought of,” she said.
Apart from regular door-to-door campaign, the party will rely heavily on the availability of modern technology. The party already has a YouTube channel.
The party's campaign team has several wings such as data collection, merchandise, software and design & publicity. “Once the candidature is finalised across the State, we will plan our campaign on Facebook and Twitter. These two social networking sites will be used heavily,” said Ms. Nair.
Former IIT and IIM students are helping the AAP to develop a mobile app and the software to improve the networking of the party among voters. The software is centred on data collection of voters for each constituency and feedback from party activists will help in deciding the focus areas.
Anando Dutta, a design professor, is currently preparing templates, which will be distributed across the State to prepare posters and banners. “The videos which we are also shooting will be aired on social media and during our rallies,” he said.
According to party activists, the AAP also relies heavily on small nukkad (square) rallies, which have already begun across the city. A group of five or six young members of the party carries a small speakerphone till the main square in the area, where one speaker talks about corruption, price rise and nepotism, while others distribute registration forms or try to engage passers-by in conversation.
“It also tells us about the different abilities of our members. Everyone who joins us has to show his/her skills on road first, as there is no alternative to ground work,” Ms. Nair said.
