Social media is effective in elections, door-to-door campaigning is still a surefire weapon

Impact of social media on elections: The revolution in the world of technology, especially social media, has reshaped election campaigns and party organizations in India. BJP has won the online campaign, but other parties are also not behind. The interference of social media in elections has increased significantly. However, door-to-door campaigning is still an essential weapon for political parties. Observers also termed the 2019 parliamentary election as a WhatsApp election.

India became a symbol of the global communication technology revolution

Over the past decade, India has become a symbol of the global communications technology revolution. Today a smartphone can be purchased over the counter within minutes. By the end of 2022, two-thirds of Indians were using smartphones and by 2026, India will have one billion smartphone users.

Politicians are also ready to spend lakhs

On Facebook and Twitter you are asked who might be the best candidate for your area. Actually, all this work is done by Internet media influencers, who are in great demand at the moment. From political parties to politicians are searching for him these days. He is being called to the party meeting. Leaders are ready to spend lakhs of rupees for this. This is why nowadays public relations companies hire people with knowledge of Internet media on a part-time basis.

73 voters said door-to-door campaigning and rallies were more effective.

A face-to-face survey of 4,000 voters in Uttar Pradesh in 2022 found that voters find it more appropriate to campaign in person to reach them. 73 percent of voters surveyed considered personal campaigning, such as door-to-door campaigning and mass rallies, as the most important campaign for reaching voters.

Also promote through Facebook and WhatsApp

An analysis of around 3100 tweets from social media handles during Madhya Pradesh's 2023 assembly election campaign revealed a similar pattern. About 35 percent of the tweets included rally material. 70 percent of them included post-rally content. Ahead of the 2022 assembly elections, 90 per cent of the nearly 400 BJP and SP party workers in UP said they had posted photos and videos of their party rallies on WhatsApp and Facebook. And 53 percent of 2,000 voters reported that they viewed photos and videos from campaign rallies on their phones at least once on Election Day.

54 percent voters consider personal campaigning to be most important

Even for national level parties like BJP and Congress, about 54 per cent of voters in the survey said in-person campaigning was most important. In the 2014 and 2019 general elections, the BJP and Congress spent one-fourth to one-third of the total expenditure on individual rallies. At the same time, the share of voters participating in rallies remains stable at around 20 percent.