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The byelections to Sira and Rajarajeshwarinagar, scheduled for November 3, may see political events ramp up their social media presence to reach out to voters amid the specter of the COVID-19 pandemic. With social distancing and restrictions on forming teams in place, the events are additionally cautious about their leaders contracting the virus over the following 20 days as election fever rises.
WhatsApp is being seen as a most well-liked platform to reach out to voters on the sales space stage, and all of the three events are utilizing this medium to reach out by means of booth-level volunteers. Facebook and Twitter, although, shall be utilized by the events to reach out to the extra savvy voters and with a bigger message. In the largely rural Sira constituency, Facebook is being seen as not of a lot assist, whereas in R.R. Nagar it may assist the events join to a much bigger city viewers.
“These elections will definitely pose a challenge to the parties involved in electioneering during the pandemic. We are going to use more of social media, especially WhatsApp, to reach out to voters. WhatsApp groups have been formed at the booth level, and party messages will be pushed into these groups, which in turn will forward these messages to the voters,” stated BJP spokesman N. Ravikumar. “We can reach the voters directly through WhatsApp and almost instantly. At least about 50% of our canvassing will be done through WhatAapp, while the traditional house-to-house campaigning will also be there,” he stated.
JD(S) technique
The Janata Dal (S), which is historically seen as a “not-so tech-savvy” occasion, can be utilizing WhatsApp to reach out to the utmost variety of voters, and has even skilled a few of its WhatsApp directors on the sorts of messages to be forwarded to these exterior the occasion’s voter base. “We have told them strictly to forward those messages that speak about the performance and achievements of the JD(S) and not to criticise other parties or leaders. We are also pushing such messages of H.D. Kumaraswamy’s achievements,” stated JD(S) social media coordinator Naveen C. Gowda. On the matter of preferring the platform of WhatsApp, he stated, “We have seen that most people who are on Facebook are those who are fans or followers of a particular leader or party. Approaching through Facebook will be limited,” he stated.
The Congress is learnt to have ramped up its social media workforce after the oath-taking ceremony of D.{K}. Shivakumar as Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president noticed an general imprint of about 1.4 crore throughout social media platforms. “This is also his first election and he has realised the importance of reaching out to voters through online platforms. Booth-level workers are now part of this social media outreach, and Zoom meetings have become common to strategise with the local leaders,” a Congress supply stated.
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