With the polls drawing near, the ruling Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) and main opposition Congress are sweating profusely in the preparations for the elections to be held on May 25 on all 10 Lok Sabha seats in the sixth phase. While the BJP is on toes to repeat history winning all 10 parliamentary seats but in the wake of a new political scenario as well as developments, it seems an uphill task for the saffron party.
With an aim to stop BJP from marking a second consecutive victory on all 10 seats, the Congress continues to mull over every possible strategy. In this series, in wake of the, the possible strengthened positions of the BJP and the Congress, the opposite parties including Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are on toes get a shot in the arm ahead of the polls. In a bid to speed up the canvassing, the BJP contenders have deployed social media warriors to reach the masses by circulating posts as well as uploading videos of campaigning on social media platforms including Facebook and ‘’X’’.
By holding rallies, public meetings and circulating and posting the details on social media, the party Lok Sabha candidates are continuously sharpening their elections campaign as well as appealing voters to cast their franchise in their support on social media. It is pertinent to mention that due to the prevailing feud among Bhupender Singh Hooda and Kumari Selja, Randeep Surjewala and Kiran Chaudhary (SRK) faction, Congress has remained undecided in terms of finalisation of candidates on all 10 Lok Sabha seats while JJP, INLD and AAP have fielded candidates on on 5, 3 and 1 seats respectively. It is a noticeable fact that due to the ongoing battle for supremacy among the party stalwarts, Congress has not been able to declare candidates on any seat yet.
In terms of social media usage and followers, former CM and BJP’s Karnal candidate Manohar Lal is far ahead of other party leaders as he has 7.77 thousand and 2.3 million followers on Facebook and ‘’X’’.
Further, Ashok Tanwar, Sirsa candidate who had recently joined the BJP quitting the AAP emerges on second position with 4.78 lakh Facebook and 4.87 lakh ‘’X’’ followers respectively followed by Naveen Jindal, a BJP candidate from Kurukshetra with 3.61 lakh followers on Facebook and 3.21 lakh followers on “X”.
Similarly, BJP candidate from Faridabad, Krishna Pal Gujjar has 13 lakh followers on Facebook while 1.44 lakh followers on “X” followed by the BJP candidate from Gurugram Rao Inderjit with 8.73 lakh followers on Facebook and 1.16 lakh followers on ‘’X’’
In terms of being less active on social media and having the least followers, the party candidate from Ambala, Banto Kataria, is at the forefront with just 5 thousand followers on Facebook and only 495 followers on “X” . Similarly, Mohan Lal Badoli, the BJP candidate from Sonipat constituency has less than 10 thousand followers on Facebook and approximately two thousand followers on ‘’X’’. Apart from these, party candidates from Hisar, Ranjit Singh has 95 thousand followers on Facebook and 51.6 thousand followers on ‘’X’’ followed by Arvind Sharma, the BJP candidate from Rohtak with 92 thousand followers on Facebook and only 4401 followers on ‘’X’’. Likewise, BJP candidate Dharambir Singh from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh seat has 62 thousand followers on Facebook and 11.4 thousand followers on ‘’X’’.
In continuation to aforesaid, it is evident from the social media accounts of all the BJP party candidates that they have become more active on social media than before sharing even minor details pertaining to their canvassing on social media. On an average, every Lok Sabha candidate is posting around 6 to 10 posts on social media a day pertaining to public meetings, rallies and participation in any program organized by party workers as well as voters in their concerned constituencies. Apart from this, they are not leaving any opportunity to get political mileage from it by sharing the news clippings published in the media the next day on social media. In view of the prevailing scenario, the contest between BJP and Congress is expected to be more fierce than before.
One thing is evident from Facebook and “X” accounts, there are less posts on local issues and more about PM Modi on social media gg g. Most of them have only one tagline that once again is the Modi government. Many members have also made reels of PM Modi and themselves on Bollywood songs in which they are demanding victory in different ways.
With an aim to stop BJP from marking a second consecutive victory on all 10 seats, the Congress continues to mull over every possible strategy. In this series, in wake of the, the possible strengthened positions of the BJP and the Congress, the opposite parties including Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are on toes get a shot in the arm ahead of the polls.