Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Along with fieldwork and preparing election strategies behind closed doors, BJP and Congress are also competing to reach as many people as possible through different social media platforms. BJP is claiming that it is doing 50 tweets per day and at the same time, Congress is saying that it is making 15 to 17 tweets per day.
These tweets are both positive and negative and are being posted by both parties with the purpose of countering each other. Besides this, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and other social media platforms are also being used aggressively by both political parties.
BJP’s social media convenor Abhishek Sharma said to Free Press that BJP is doing 50 tweets per day to inform people about the achievements of state and central governments and to expose the lies of Congress. It is posting one cartoon per day to target Congress.
Moreover, WhatsApp groups have been formed at all the 64,500 booths in the state. In comparison to previous elections, the BJP is focusing more aggressively on usage of social media. The emphasis is more on Facebook posts as a large population lives in rural areas and doesn’t use Twitter. BJP has around 14 lakh Facebook followers. “ We are aggressively highlighting the unfulfilled promises of Congress and its lies. We are getting huge support of people on social media,” he claimed.
Chairman of Congress Social Media Cell, Abhay Tiwari said to Free Press that 15 to 17 tweets are being done by Congress per day. Moreover, its Instagram handle has 2.35 lakh followers and BJP has only 85,000 followers on its Instagram handle which is being widely used by youths and first-time voters. This shows the huge popularity of Congress on social media platforms, he claimed.
The content being posted by the Congress on social media includes both negative and positive content with the purpose of countering the BJP and its claims. Under the negative category, Congress is raking up the 50% commission issue with all its might along with other burning issues. Under the positive category, 11 promises of Congress are being widely circulated on social media. Congress has 1 lakh WhatsApp groups in the State.
Notably, BSP, SP and other regional parties have a presence in a few pockets of the State but their social media usage is not making its presence felt as that of the BJP and Congress.
