SHWETA KAMAT
PANJIM: Political parties in Goa, who have been working overtime to breach every communication barrier while campaigning for the April 12 Parliamentary polls, have liberally resorted to use of new media to reach voters, learning from dizzy success of the Aam Admi party in the Delhi State Assembly elections.
From cell phones to social media, political parties have been striving to bring more and more voters within their communication loop given the relatively short span of time they had at their disposal to cover much ground.With Goa having a high cellphone-population ratio and virtually every household having a cell phone, the party machinery had incorporated cellphone jingles, voice and text messages in this year’s poll campaign.
Android apps, multimedia messaging service (MMS), a mobile landing page, a voice call or a YouTube clip were all used by candidates in trying to reach out to over 10 lakh voters. While the opposition is trying to expose the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on its unkept promises or failure of governance through voice messages and videos, BJP candidates were appealing to people to vote for a change at the Centre, overloading the bytes with Modi’s persona.
Though the election campaigns had initially kicked off through social networking sites like “Facebook” and “Twitter”, the political parties shifted their strategy towards cell phones, considering that most elderly people, especially from the rural areas, are not social media savvy. It’s also a way to reach out to those people, whom candidates fail to meet in person. Cell phones are still the most effective way for political candidates to reach a sizeable number of voters.
There was an overload of text messages, videos and voice messages about BJP government’s decision to ban mining. Some took a gamble in posting the BJP’s U-turn on casinos, increasing unemployment, failure of law and order, increase of crime in a bid to outwit draw mileage. Not just this, but Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s statement to CNN-IBN channel stating that it was not Supreme Court but “he who shut down mining” is also been circulated. The strategy was adopted by the young brigade of the Congress which was very active in exposing the BJP’s shortcomings and garnering votes. The overall strategy was to mine the votes from the ore-rich seven talukas of the state.
On the other hand, BJP candidates Shripad Naik (north) and Advocate Narendra Sawaikar (south) through pre-recorded voice calls are appealing to the people to vote for BJP and for Narendra Modi the party’s prime ministerial candidate.
Irrespective of the outcome of the April 12 elections, the cell phone and social media, have emerged as indispensable tools in the campaign kit of political parties and independents from the Lok Sabha 2014 election campaigns and for campaigns to come.
