NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi started his ‘Main Bhi Chowkidar’ campaign for the Lok Sabha elections almost 15 days back. Now the opposition is finally joining the race on social media, with the Congress tweaking its ‘chowkidar chor hai’ slogan to ‘ek hi chowkidar chor hai’ and ‘Modi mat banao’; the TMC starting ‘Pradhan Mantri Hisab Do’ and the CPI(M) launching ‘Ab ki bar Modi berozgar’ video campaigns.
The Congress is yet to officially launch publicity material for the election, but it is taking on the BJP on social media platforms. The party Monday posted a 7-page ‘Ek Bharat Berozgaar Bharat’ parody BJP manifesto, targeting the PM. The ‘chowkidar chor hai’ slogan was tweaked after feedback that it hasn’t gone down well with the people.
According to party sources, publicity material is expected to be launched this week and would include quirky slogans attacking PM, increasing unemployment in the country, prevailing agrarian crisis and failure to fulfill the promises made by the party.
Rahul Gandhi, who is scheduled to launch the Congress manifesto Tuesday, has also been posting the party’s plans in various sectors if voted to power. This includes filling 22 lakh job vacancies in government by March 31, 2020, scrapping the NITI Aayog and tax credits on jobs created.
Regional parties have also started social media and video campaigns. The TMC has launched a series of videos starting March 30 attacking the PM and questioning government policies. The Left also launched publicity videos talking about issues like demonetisation, GST rollout, job losses and farmer distress.
With the first phase of election starting April 11, the campaign is expected to pick up in the coming days. Explain the delay in starting such campaigns, an opposition leader said, “The election fervour is yet to pick up and sometimes early launch of publicity material and audio-visual campaigns make them lose steam.”