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Since the declaration of the Assembly election, every time the mobile phone vibrates alerting a new message, there is this general ‘fear’ whether it is an invitation to join yet another WhatsApp group of one more candidate.
Mainstream political parties seem so smitten by the instant messaging facility that there seems to be as many WhatsApp groups as there are candidates obsessed with maximising the reach of their campaign.
“Separate WhatsApp groups for each candidate seems a latent phenomenon that has gone viral like never before in an election and they serve as a bridge among other things between the candidates and the media. It is near impossible for media houses to assign people to follow all candidates in all constituencies and that is where WhatsApp becomes handy, both to disseminate information and to even arrange for special stories,” says Sethu Raj K., campaign coordinator of United Democratic Front Vypeen candidate Deepak Joy.
The groups turn active as early as 7.30 a.m. starting with posts on the schedules of candidates for the day followed by the incessant flow of pictures and short videos and reports going late into the night. A full-fledged report compiling the highlights of the campaign trail for the day is filed in the evening ahead of the newspaper deadlines.
“We liaison with local campaign coordinators of the candidates and their inputs to internal groups are then curated for the public groups,” says A.S. Satheesh, a freelance photographer associated with handling the WhatsApp content of multiple candidates.
Sherin Varghese, Ernakulam District Congress Committee general secretary and media in-charge, compars the Facebook campaign to public meetings and WhatsApp posts to door-to-door visits. He, however, warns WhatsApp campaign of working in silos to the advantage of parties and candidates, helping them sell different opinions to various interest groups, which would not be possible in an offline campaign.
“WhatsApp also helps to maintain an easily accessible virtual library for shaping social media campaigns. WhatsApp status is also used as an effective messaging tool by our activists as it helps them to overcome the ban on politics in numerous groups they are part of. After all, choosing WhatsApp status is one’s personal matter and none can stop it,” he says.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has rechristened its social media campaign as hitech media campaign for this Assembly election, views WhatsApp as a fitting medium to reach out to circles beyond the party’s committed base.
“We already have separate groups at various party levels and groups of candidates have been started since it helps reach out to diverse audience depending on the profile of the candidates concerned. We also conduct digital conclaves, which are broadcast across our social media platforms,” says Jeevanlal Ravi, BJP IT in-charge.
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