Congress-BJP social media war hots up over Gujarat elections

NEW DELHI: On October 20, BJP national spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia tweeted an innovative 44-second propaganda video on how Congress allegedly got embroiled in "corruption" and "minority appeasement" over the decades. Four days later, Congress's social media head Divya Spandana issued a similar 72-second counter propaganda video alleging that "riots" and "trolls" were tools of BJP.
With Gujarat state elections just weeks away, a bitter and caustic political social media war is in full swing. Videos, infographics and hashtags countering each party's claims are rife on networks like Twitter and Facebook. BJP has flooded social media channels with its "Hun chhu vikas, hun chhu Gujarat (I am development, I am Gujarat)" videos, while Congress is running hashtags like #VikasGandoThayoChhe, questioning development claims. To reach the common voter, messaging app WhatsApp has emerged as king.

BJP's national IT department head Amit Malviya says WhatsApp is the most pervasive among digital modes of campaigning. "On a recent tour to Gujarat, I met BJP workers from Bharuch who are prolific on social media and have created information networks for grassroots' mobilisation predominantly using WhatsApp," says Malviya, adding that reaching potential voters on WhatsApp works best with a physical outreach programme." It is best to connect with voters in local areas, convince them and add them to a common interest group using WhatsApp to share our messages," he says.



Arjun Modhwadia of the Gujarat state Congress says that compared to five years ago, WhatsApp is far more prominent in campaigning now. "In 2012, Facebook was big, Twitter was not so widespread and WhatsApp was not on the horizon. Now WhatsApp is common in rural areas as well," says Modhwadia.

Both Modhwadia and Malviya talk of using localised campaigns, which include videos and audio clips in both Hindi and Gujarati shareable on WhatsApp. Modhwadia points to Rajesh Thaker, who has been circulating videos of himself speaking to the camera along with his monologues on audio clips. A video on demonetisation from Thaker has him demanding that the PM take public questions.

Malviya says that "if the message is powerful, it carries on its own. You will notice that in our Hun Chhu Vikas videos, which have gone viral, the colours, language and the attire are relevant to local Gujarati customs," he says, drawing attention to a campaign video featuring a man schooling two development doubters on the positive impact of Modi's policies at a barbershop.

Election talk has dominated the Twitter feeds of both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi. From his various trips and rallies in Gujarat, Modi's posted over 40 tweets directly related to the state in October. Not to be left behind, Gandhi issued nearly a dozen concerning the key western state last month.

Party officials are reluctant about revealing their social media budgets. Volunteers take on much of the online work, they say. Both BJP and Congress have posted online photos of state-level IT cell meetings in packed auditoriums. Modhwadia says in Gujarat, Congress has a core team of about 50 volunteers working on creative content such as videos, memes etc with another 4,000 actively posting on Facebook, Twitter and other channels. Malviya says BJP has a 15-member team in Ahmedabad working on creating content for digital medium.