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Journalism of Courage
Catchy slogans, targeted programmes, and innovative outreach campaigns have become the rage on social media ahead of the November 12 Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections, with the Congress and the BJP pulling out all the stops for their online campaigns.
“Joiya mama sunda nahi (Joiya uncle doesn’t listen)” is the latest of the social media slogans that the Congress is using to target Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur. Having gained currency during the ongoing agitation to implement the Old Pension Scheme (OPS), the slogan has now become Congress’s campaign tool of choice for targeting Thakur.
A parody page of the same name is being run by the party’s social media team, with caricatures of the CM and the hashtag #VoteforOPS.
To counter this, the BJP has adopted the hashtag “Congress ke karnaame (Congress’s misdeeds)” on its official pages. Another punchline at the centre of the BJP’s campaign is “Naya Riwaaz banayenge, phir Bhajpa layenge (We will bring in a new tradition, the BJP will come to power again)”, which illustrates the party’s confidence that the people of Himachal would buck the trend of voting for a new government every five years to bring back the party to power. The hill state has not seen an incumbent government retain power since the 1980s.
Previous electoral battles have seen well-known poll strategists and professional agencies such as Prashant Kishor’s I-PAC, which helped strategise Captain Amarinder Singh’s comeback as Punjab’s CM in 2017, or Sunil Kanugolu’s Mindshare Analytics involved in the Shiromani Akali Dal’s (SAD) campaign in 2022.
But, in Himachal, parties are largely working with local agencies and relying on a dedicated team of workers to gauge the response on the ground. The agencies are offering constituency-wise packages and employing data analytics and other tools to help reach a bigger audience, said a source working for a campaign.
Speaking of the strategy, Congress’s social media in-charge for the polls Saral Patel said, “We are largely depending on our in-house war room and workers for social media campaigning, strategising and canvassing. There are three to four small agencies which are helping us with content creation. We are reaching out to each booth with WhatsApp groups. The focus of our campaign is highlighting our 10 guarantees and the failures of the BJP.”
A BJP leader working for the party’s social media team and the IT Cell said they were primarily relying on Facebook and Instagram. “Each booth has a WhatsApp group on which creatives and videos are forwarded to our workers, who share it with targeted voters. A central agency hired by the party is helping us in overall coordination,” he said, adding that there were 1,500 specialised social media party workers for the job.
Kishore Sharma, who handles the CM’s media management, called Thakur “one of the most tech-savvy leaders in the country”.
He added, “The CM has not hired any agency for public relations. Most of the media outreach is voluntary and organic. Several folk songs in local dialects have been made by people organically as tributes, showing the level of reach he has. The CM carries multiple cell phones and tablets to increase the scope of interaction. The CM also goes through comments to gauge the public pulse.”
From a local singer singing about the “Him Care” scheme, which aims to provide cashless healthcare treatment in the state, to his public interactions with background music, the CM’s social media pages are a combination of videos that are frequently updated.
Other leaders too have been directing their focus to social media.
“Social media helps a leader reach a larger audience. Across platforms, the public can see the work of a leader and make decisions accordingly. It is an important resource,” said Saurabh Chauhan who works with urban development minister Suresh Bharadwaj.
In the areas of Upper Himachal, connectivity remains a barrier. There, social media posts are being complemented by streamlined door-to-door campaigning.
“Some villages in Lahaul and Spiti have poor Internet connectivity. High-speed Internet is a recent phenomenon here. Facebook and Whatsapp are the primary sources of interaction. The idea is to build a political atmosphere despite the challenges,” said Sonu Sharma who works for the Congress’s Spiti candidate Ravi Thakur.
A few innovative campaigns, run without the help of agencies, have also grabbed attention. The Congress’s Nurpur candidate and former MLA Ajay Mahajan launched the “Biodata do, naukri lo (Give your biodata, get a job)” campaign and the “Idea 10 lakh ka (give an idea worth 10 lakhs)”, inviting people to share business and employment generation ideas for the constituency.
Going with the slogan “Sab pe bhaari, Asha Kumari (Asha Kumari has trumped everyone)”, six-time MLA and former CM Virbadhra Singh’s niece Asha Kumari has also introduced the “Idea 10 lakh ka” campaign in her constituency. She is the Congress’s candidate from Dalhousie. Her campaign tagline is “Dalhousie ki Asha (Dalhousie’s Asha)”.
Meanwhile, banking on his father Virbadhra’s legacy, Vikramaditya Singh, the Congress candidate from Shimla (Rural), is going with the punchline “Aapse kiye har waade nibhaaye hain, abki baar nayi soch ke saath aaye hain. (We have kept our promises and have returned with a new approach).”
The BJP’s Facebook page – with 285K followers – has been using “Himachal ki pukaar, phir Bhajpa sarkaar (Says Himachal, BJP will return to power)” as its primary slogan, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as its key campaign face. The Congress, which has 311K followers, has adopted the slogan “Himachal ka sankalp, Congress hi ek matra vikalp (Himachal’s resolution, the Congress is the prime resolution)” and has Virbadhra’s wife, Pratibha Singh, as the campaign face.
Newcomer Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is making inroads in the hill state, is banking on its wins in Delhi and Punjab and has appealed for “badlaav (change)” and given the slogan “ek mauka Kejriwal ko (one opportunity to Kejriwal)” as it did in the Punjab Assembly elections earlier this year.
