The previous Assembly elections in the State had witnessed campaigning through SMS and MMS. However, Raichur Congress candidate B V Naik and BJP candidate Shivangouda Naik have gone one step further by opening Facebook accounts to campaign. Both the candidates are not only posting regular status updates on the social media website, but are also posting images with statements seeking votes.
Interestingly, with the literacy in the constituency along with internet usage being very low, even the candidates know that they cannot reach a large number of voters through the social media.
Yet, news about campaigns and pictures are being posted.
To add to this, the media monitoring and certification committee, set up to monitor the expenditure of candidates, is now looking in to campaigning through the internet. Further it will also consider the costs involved in social media campaigning as part of the total poll expenditure by candidates.
The Election Commission of India has issued guidelines about the use of social media websites to be followed in connection with election campaign. According to the EC, care should be taken to prevent deliberate maligning of the image and attacks on the personal lives of candidates.