Haryana Assembly polls: Ticket aspirants make presence felt on social media
Tribune News Service
Ambala, August 27
Even though political parties are yet to announce their candidates for the Assembly election, the supporters of the ticket aspirants of various political parties have already intensified their campaigning on social media.
Content creators hired
Politicians have hired professional content creators and freelancer YouTubers to create content and upload material on social media platforms. The entry of professional content creators is helping the political parties in a big way by reaching out to a large number of people in a short period of time and preparing strategies to strengthen their base
— Ashok Sharma, Social Media Expert
Social media platforms are flooded with pictures and videos of aspirants visiting their constituencies to attract voters, and their social media handlers make sure that pictures and videos related to their campaigns are regularly uploaded.
From sharing interview clips, short reels, and using patriotic and motivational songs with the videos filmed while campaigning, the political parties and the aspirants have been actively using social media platforms to mark their presence.
Besides running campaigns for their leaders, the same social media pages are being used by their supporters and social media teams to post old videos of the leaders of the opposition party. The supporters of opposition parties lock horns in comment sections and even use doctored videos to take a dig at each other.
The BJP’s social media team is running various pages to post the achievements and policies of the government and also to criticise the Congress party through statistics, pictures, reels and public reaction videos regarding government schemes. Similarly, Congress supporters have been posting public reactions, and videos prepared regarding the BJP’s claims on non-stop Haryana campaign, the decision to procure MSP on crops, and other government schemes.
Similarly, the AAP, JJP, and INLD have been running campaigns on social media to engage with voters, disseminate their messages and mobilise support.
Ashok Sharma, a social media expert, said, “It has been observed that not only the political parties but the individual aspirants also have been running multiple social media handles for canvassing. The politicians have hired professional content creators and freelancer YouTubers to create content and upload the material on social media platforms. The entry of professional content creators, is helping the political parties in a big way by reaching out to a large number of people in a short period of time and preparing strategies to strengthen their base.”
“Besides canvassing, social media has become a compulsion too for many leaders just to counter the opposition parties and leaders, and to make their presence felt,” he said.
“At the same time, the overuse of social media is a matter of concern too because misinformation can spread quickly, so it is a challenge for the parties and voters to verify the claims and ensure that the right information is being posted,” he added.
