Social media spices up Punjab assembly poll scene

Sukhmeet Bhasin

Bathinda, February 5

Mobile phone and Internet-based social networking applications such as WhatsApp and Facebook among others have spiced up the canvassing for the 2022 Assembly polls this time.

Fictional characters along with the superimposed faces of renowned political personalities taking potshots with well-articulated speeches converted into jokes is going viral on the social media.

Videos, memes being widely circulated

This is not the first time that caricatures and jokes in the form of videos, memes and photos are being circulated ahead of the polls. The only difference is this time these are being spread around more aggressively. —Gurpreet Singh, A bathinda resident

Even major political parties are not staying away from this and are doing their best to use the virtual medium to reach out to voters. Animated clips are adding colour to the poll campaign as a two-part series titled: “The Thugs of Punjab”, was released by the SAD last month. It targets various Congress leaders. The party’s digital campaign focuses mainly on portraying both — the Congress and the AAP — as outsiders.

On January 24, the Punjab Congress shared a 34-second meme video that was put up on its Twitter handle projecting its leaders as warriors in a scene straight out of Hollywood movie ‘Avengers: Infinity War’. In the video, the party’s choice of the animated warrior in lead role ‘Thor’ is Charanjit Singh Channi, Navjot Singh Sidhu as ‘Captain America’, Rahul Gandhi as ‘Bruce Banner’ while PM Narendra Modi and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal as ‘aliens’.

The use of social media in politics has dramatically changed the way campaigns are run and how people interact with political leaders. In this election, politicians are using the social media to reach out to the people. Moreover, political opponents are taking a potshot at each other on Twitter and Facebook, etc.

The social media has become a key platform for reaching out to voters, especially the youth.

Most politicians are also promoting their speeches, public meetings and events by posting photos and videos on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.