AHMEDABAD: In a week, posts just from BJP Gujarat’s official Twitter handle spiked by 72%, with 112 posts at the rate of one post per 12 minutes coming on Sunday alone. That day, BJP uploaded 36 videos including the speeches of PM Narendra Modi on its Facebook page.
Other political parties are also upping their social media game. Congress’s weekly posts went up by 40% and AAP’s by 50% compared to last week. Campaigning has entered the last stage with barely 10 days to go before the first phase of election on December 1. The parties are using all the three major social media platforms — Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram — to amplify their messages and woo the young, tech-savvy voters.
An analysis indicates that a majority of local political leaders retweeted the posts of national leaders or of their parties’ official handles. On Twitter, BJP concentrated on providing statistics of the works done over the years, Congress made allegations of corruption and focused on inflation, while AAP spoke of the necessity for change.
Both the Congress and BJP slammed AAP when a video of Satyendar Jain surfaced recently. The video shows Jain purportedly getting special treatment in Delhi’s Tihar jail. But the Congress and AAP have attacked BJP with allegations of corruption.
The parties also used examples of other states such as Punjab and Rajasthan to either deride other governments or to promise similar schemes if elected to power. The parties also employed videos — one featuring Yamraj — to criticize one another.
The usage of videos and pictures has increased manifold compared to the past election. Before the candidates for the 182 Gujarat assembly seats were announced, the posts stuck with well-known faces. Now, both national and state leaders along with candidates form the core of messaging, party officials said.
“The social media content has matured considerably compared to the 2017 election. Parties’ IT cells vigilantly monitor rivals’ campaigns and are quick to issue counter-arguments or rebuttals,” said an Ahmedabad-based social media analyst. “BJP has a star campaigner in PM Narendra Modi and a majority of the posts over the past few days have featured him. Congress’s Rahul Gandhi forayed into campaigning for the state election on Monday.”
The analyst added: “Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal has been consistent in tweeting about his campaigns in Gujarat and appealing to the locals to give a chance to the party.” A senior functionary in BJP’s IT cell said that the social media blitzkrieg will match the action on the ground. “The attempt is to capture whatever is happening in rallies and relay it in real time,” the functionary said. “Almost all the major rallies are live on social media. We also intend to trend one hashtag related to the election daily.”
Congress relies on continuous campaigns to ‘expose’ the government.
Other political parties are also upping their social media game. Congress’s weekly posts went up by 40% and AAP’s by 50% compared to last week. Campaigning has entered the last stage with barely 10 days to go before the first phase of election on December 1. The parties are using all the three major social media platforms — Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram — to amplify their messages and woo the young, tech-savvy voters.
An analysis indicates that a majority of local political leaders retweeted the posts of national leaders or of their parties’ official handles. On Twitter, BJP concentrated on providing statistics of the works done over the years, Congress made allegations of corruption and focused on inflation, while AAP spoke of the necessity for change.
Both the Congress and BJP slammed AAP when a video of Satyendar Jain surfaced recently. The video shows Jain purportedly getting special treatment in Delhi’s Tihar jail. But the Congress and AAP have attacked BJP with allegations of corruption.
The parties also used examples of other states such as Punjab and Rajasthan to either deride other governments or to promise similar schemes if elected to power. The parties also employed videos — one featuring Yamraj — to criticize one another.
The usage of videos and pictures has increased manifold compared to the past election. Before the candidates for the 182 Gujarat assembly seats were announced, the posts stuck with well-known faces. Now, both national and state leaders along with candidates form the core of messaging, party officials said.
“The social media content has matured considerably compared to the 2017 election. Parties’ IT cells vigilantly monitor rivals’ campaigns and are quick to issue counter-arguments or rebuttals,” said an Ahmedabad-based social media analyst. “BJP has a star campaigner in PM Narendra Modi and a majority of the posts over the past few days have featured him. Congress’s Rahul Gandhi forayed into campaigning for the state election on Monday.”
The analyst added: “Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal has been consistent in tweeting about his campaigns in Gujarat and appealing to the locals to give a chance to the party.” A senior functionary in BJP’s IT cell said that the social media blitzkrieg will match the action on the ground. “The attempt is to capture whatever is happening in rallies and relay it in real time,” the functionary said. “Almost all the major rallies are live on social media. We also intend to trend one hashtag related to the election daily.”
Congress relies on continuous campaigns to ‘expose’ the government.
