WhatsApp is clearly the new tool for political campaigning. Political parties in Karnataka are leaving no stone unturned to gain wider traction on social media ahead of the State Assembly elections in April/May 2018, reaching all the way to the villages.
While some parties are hiring teams especially to assist them in their social media campaigns, others are enlisting the services of volunteers who will work with them for a few hours daily and spend more time on weekends.
An assorted bunch
The core social media team of JD(S)’s ‘Namma HDK’ has around 40 people, of which 15 are full-timers and the remaining volunteers. The BJP, on the other hand, says its entire social media team is volunteer-driven and they have around 5,000 of them.
The Congress is making use of a mix of volunteers and full-time staff. They have roped in 25 people consisting of a team of graphic designers, technical experts and content writers. While a core team at the State level is working on generating content, social media teams rely on their party cadre and volunteers to spread information.
Various issues
Parties are taking care to pick different issues to push messages among their urban and rural voters. Srivatsa Y.B., Karnataka Congress social media in charge, said: “In urban areas, we will focus on work done in improving the condition of roads especially TenderSURE, and the success of Indira Canteen. In rural areas, our focus will be on successful schemes such as Krishi Bhagya, farm loan waiver and Mathru Poorna.” He also said their party does not encourage trolling, and members use their personal accounts to counter fake news, images or videos put out by the Opposition.
In Kannada
Balaji Srinivas, State convener, BJP social media cell, said while they are reaching out to urban voters in English, they are sending out messages in Kannada to the rural voters.
There will also be a sub-regional twist, with them using Dharwad Kannada in north Karnataka areas. “Besides the languages, we focus on issues like Mahadayi in Hubballi-Dharwad and issues like steel flyover proposed by the Congress in Bengaluru,” he said. Mr. Srinivas said they were focusing on the “positive” moves initiated by the Central government and also highlighting failures of the Congress government in Karnataka.
A core member of the social media team for JD(S) said they are sending out messages about the “positive” work done by H.D. Kumaraswamy while he was Chief Minister.
While other political parties are focusing on State leaders as well as the party, the JD(S) team appears more keen on actively promoting a personality and plans to reach masses in 135 assembly constituencies.
Targets set
The social media teams have also set targets they aim to achieve before elections.
Mr. Srivatsa said they want to have at least one digital youth in each of the 55,000 booths by January-end.
The JD(S) claim that they currently reach 5 lakh people and want to reach 50 lakh by the end of the month. The BJP, which has 7,000 WhatsApp groups, says that they do not have specific targets and the aim is to reach as many voters as possible.
Mr. Srivatsa said: “It’s going to be a WhatsApp election as its access and engagement time is far more than other social media platforms,” adding that the party has more than 2,000 WhatsApp groups and is targeting to reach over 5,000.
‘Intense competition’
Political analyst Sandeep Shastri said that while the level of penetration of social media is more among the urban and the educated, social media was becoming important in rural areas as well. “Parties are using vernacular languages to reach out to people in ways they can understand,” he said. He, however, said that while social media was important, traditional sources of reaching out to people were also important given the stiff and intense electoral competition.
