Arvind Gupta, national head of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) IT cell, says there are 160 parliamentary constituencies where social media will have huge impact in the next general election. An IIT graduate and PhD holder in data analysis from Illinois in US, in an interview with Shashi Bhushan, Gupta deliberates on the importance of social media in winning elections

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Why are major political parties suddenly concentrating on social media?It’s not all of a sudden for BJP. For the last four years, the party has been continuously active on social media. The party has an online presence since 1998. Social media is a very effective medium for us to communicate about our achievements. Social media is an additional medium and it can definitely help us win the elections.

Will social media help political parties win elections?Like other marketing tools, campaign on social media is one of them and no good marketing can sell a bad product. Social media is used to communicate with the people and receive their feedback. There are over 16 crore Internet users in the country and one cannot ignore such a huge online population. Social media is one of the top four tools used to reach out to such a huge population. There are 160 parliamentary constituencies where social media and the internet will have a huge impact and it includes urban seats.

In your opinion do people [who are] active on online turn up to vote?New trend of sharing of inked finger after voting on social media and asking others whether they have voted or not has changed lots of things. Now people make others ashamed by sharing their pictures on social media. The peer pressure forces others to vote. In the last few elections, voting percentage has increased a little bit and will certainly increase with more awareness among voters, especially the youth.

Has traditional way of campaigning lost its charm?Both, traditional and new-age campaigning, will co-exist. Only, priority has been changed and political parties have to select the method of campaigning. Currently, all parliamentary constituencies have been divided into three categories — non-urban or rural constituencies, semi-urban and urban constituencies. For non-urban and rural constituencies, political parties have to stress on traditional ways of campaigning. In semi-urban parliamentary seats, campaign will be a combination of traditional way and online activities. In urban seats, where percentage of young voters is high, online campaign can be given more priority.

How is BJP’s social media campaign different from the Congress’s?Our (BJP) online campaign is completely different from the Congress’s; we are well ahead of them. Congress has started very late and therefore they have to catch up a lot. So they are throwing in a lot of money for it. BJP made its online debut in 1998 and they (Congress) have become active online in the last few years. Its ‘Passion of BJP’s volunteers versus paisa (money)’ of Congress.