THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Be it making catchy videos, memes or posters, political parties are leaving no stone unturned to woo their voters. With assembly elections around the corner, social media cells of LDF, UDF and BJP are making the most of social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Interestingly, the social media cells are managed by groups of young people who are adept at putting together short videos, parody videos, memes, campaign songs, street shows and digital posters for the candidates or the party, sometimes praising them, or at other times, offering the opponent a blow below the belt.
CAPTURING THE GOLDEN MOMENTS
While BJP has special social media cells for Nemom and district election wings, those handling the digital campaigns of the party opine that majority of the activity is done on Facebook. The official Facebook page of BJP already has over 79,000 followers.
“Short videos of candidates in which they share experiences and talk about how their lives have changed with the changing governments are quite popular on our page. We update the posts often. Candid moments of the candidates with voters are most trending. Capturing the right moments is the biggest challenge,” says Anand J S, who works with BJP’s social media team. Nearly 25 videos based on the 1991 Malayalam film ‘Sandesham’ highlighting the ‘choose the right party’ tagline has also been brought out by BJP.
ALL HANDS ON THE DECK FOR CONGRESS
The Congress party has been quite active on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. However, WhatsApp is their main campaigning tool. Different teams handle their social media accounts and the each candidate’s team handles his/her respective social media channels. Trending topics and issues to be raised are picked up by the members of the digital team and these are discussed.
IT IS THE PEOPLE CONNECT FOR LDF
While the BJP is focusing on catching people’s attention on Facebook, the Left Democratic Front has rolled out over 1,000 WhatsApp groups in each constituency. Separate groups focus on issues voiced by citizens and the benefits they received. “A short video we did in which an elderly woman talks about the development in Kaattakada constituency has garnered a lot of likes,” says Mahesh A, who works at LDF’s social media cell. Social media pages of V K Prasanth, the LDF candidate in Vttiyoorkkavu is also flooded with posters, campaign songs and parodies.