Assembly Elections 2022: How political parties have created their very own metaverse to get voters’ attention online

In the run-up to the Assembly elections in five states including Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur, political parties have taken to digital to talk to their respective voters. This also comes on the back of the Election Commission of India (EC) banning mass gatherings due to the ongoing pandemic. Indian National Congress, for instance, launched its virtual campaign ‘Priyanka Ke Saath Live,’ where the party’s general secretary Priyanka Gandhi interacted with people and addressed their queries through Facebook Live. Similarly, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal unveiled the ‘Ek Mauka Kejriwal Ko’ campaign. With this, he urged the people of Delhi to upload videos (across social media platforms) of all the good work done by the Aam Aadmi Pary (AAP) in the national capital and appeal to people of other poll-bound states to give the party a chance. He further added that he would invite 50 people for a dinner with him, whose videos become the most viral. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to digital platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, among others, to conduct virtual rallies like ‘Jan Chaupal’ to address the public in view of the Covid-19 guidelines. 

“Digital has emerged as one of the most important mediums over the last few years, especially social media, where people spend most of their time today. Here, the biggest differentiating factor is that social media provides for dialogue and not monologue, which has popularly been the case so far on TV, print, and on-ground rallies,” Sahil Chopra, founder and CEO, iCubesWire, told BrandWagon Online. 

According to a recent study conducted by iCubesWire, out of 1,094 participants surveyed, 35% of the respondents said that they use Facebook to read about state politics which is the highest among other social media platforms including Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter with 14%, 17% and 6% respectively. 68% of respondents said they engage with politicians on social media platforms. Interestingly, 80% of voters think political advertising on social media platforms is a good way to keep the voters engaged and inclined towards a political party. “Digital communication is dynamic in nature and helps for better optimisation of investments in real-time by pushing fresh creatives/ content/communication in the least possible time. This makes the messaging further effective. Digital media will see heavy deployments of investments,” Ramsai Panchapakesan, SVP and national head – media buying, Zenith India, said.

For Chopra, with the Internet becoming more accessible, the digital medium will continue to gain popularity over the next few years. “More spends will continue to be directed towards digital because that is where most consumption and people are,” he added.  

However, as per political strategists, the digital medium is just an additional medium to reach out to the public similar to the other forms of media. “The only advantage is that the medium is instant and enables direct control of what is being put out, without any infiltration. It cannot replace any other media. It just reaffirms the existing vote bank by enabling sharing of information,” Tushar Panchal, founder and CEO of political consultancy WarRoom Strategies, stated. He further added that the obstacle is to find the right set of audiences and connect with them. Besides, shorter attention span and information overflow continue to pose a challenge while communicating on digital. 

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