MADURAI: When V Nivitha of Madurai picked up her ringing phone around 12.30 pm on Sunday, she did notice the spam warning, yet chose to answer it. Though the 40-year-old homemaker was expecting the usual fake bank alerts, what followed was a pre-recorded audio campaign message by a political party, highlighting its poll promises.
“It was a 31-second recorded call explaining DMK’s promise of Rs 8,000 coupon under the ‘Illathu Arasi’ scheme for women to buy home appliances. It showed up as a ‘spam alert’, but I still picked up,” says Nivitha, who has now blocked the number, annoyed after repeatedly getting such calls, mostly between 10 am and 1 pm.
With the election date fast approaching, political parties in TN have intensified their voter outreach measures, and automated Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) calls and WhatsApp messages have become the prevalent campaign tools in the digital space.
While the DMK has scaled up its campaign by sending a barrage of pre-recorded IVRS calls since Thursday, underscoring its key promises, AIADMK is countering this with viral reels such as ‘Arasiyal Aattam’ and by reaching out to voters directly through targeted WhatsApp messages.
According to sources from the DMK IT wing, apart from common social media reels, each candidate has their own way of reaching out to voters. “For example, IT Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan used to circulate a kind of ‘balance sheet’ to voters in his constituency. We have contact numbers of voters, and separate groups are working to address individual issues. Additionally, ward-level officers in the constituency regularly meet with voters. This personal rapport really helps,” the sources said.
In AIADMK, the pre-recorded messages mostly focus on the negative aspects of the incumbent MLAs’ performances, while addressing key issues in each constituency. “On a regular basis, our teams are engaging with voters, constituency-wise, by sending WhatsApp messages. We have created groups to circulate content in favour of the NDA bloc,” said D Gowrishankar, deputy secretary, AIADMK IT wing.
He further said candidates in each constituency have also been adopting their own ways to connect with voters via social media platforms, like WhatsApp and Facebook.
Meanwhile, the BJP has already begun contacting beneficiaries of central government schemes to seek their support in the polls. “Our party has received the lists of beneficiaries of schemes such as the PM Health Insurance Scheme. We reach out to them individually, explaining how the centre has supported them without corruption over the past 10 years. The calls are being made by our team from a war room in Chennai,” said KBS Sankarpandi, state secretary of Traders Cell, TN BJP.
Stating the saffron party is also planning to begin IVRS calls about a week before the polls, Sankarpandi adds, “If we start too early, voters may get irritated, ignore the calls, or even block the numbers. At present, we are also campaigning for candidates using influencers on social media. Our main focus is to highlight the corruption allegations against DMK ministers that we have recently brought out.”
Though new to the race, TVK is also planning to use WhatsApp for campaigns. “Our manifesto has already been circulated on social media. Apart from the usual reels, we are planning to share videos exposing the flaws of rival candidates in each constituency. This will be implemented soon,” said a representative, TVK IT Wing.