The Legislative Assembly elections are to be held in Uttar Pradesh in seven phases between February 10 and March 7, 2022, to ordain all 403 members of the Assembly. The Covid-19 variant (Omicron) has rung the catastrophic bell to the subcontinent, including Uttar Pradesh and its election campaigns public rallies.
The preparations of elections in the form of election rallies that were at their warming pace have, all of a sudden, frozen to zero. The Election Commission (EC) recently imposed a ban on rallies, roadshows and big meetings for a week in the five states going to polls — i.e. Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa, Manipur and Uttar Pradesh. However, the rule allows political parties to carry out digital campaigns and door-to-door voter outreach with five workers.
Who is going to get the benefit? Who is going to lose? How will the consequences of digital campaigns revolve over the head of elections? What will be the strategies of the political parties to cover the elections under the Covid-19 (Omicron) cloud?
More The Workers (Cadres), More The Benefits
The politics of Uttar Pradesh is dominated by the three big bulls: the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). No doubt UP is divided into myriad classes; upper and lower, castes, sub-castes. Ahead of the 2022 polls, political parties are going all out to strengthen their caste-centric vote banks. The BJP has its own army, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sang (RSS), which has been interacting with the people all over the state and keeping the party’s social and political portrayal alive during as well as after the elections.
Therefore, the BJP has fewer worries despite some of its MLAs quitting for another party. The more dedicated and popular RSS army on the ground will work to spread the campaign message and will do the most important thing on the voting day — get the vote in favour of the BJP. The BJP might smell the blessings more easily by the acting parallel force, RSS.
The BSP also has a committed voter root that will vote for them, as glimpsed in the former elections. These are mainly jatav voters. The SP, on the other hand, has the more-or-less faithful Muslim-Yadav segment of the voting population. Thus, the BSP and SP might have to watch the essence of their dedicated vote-banks.
Five workers, as clarified by the EC for door-to-door election campaigns (voter outreach), are sufficient for political parties to recognise the victory. The five workers with scripted and laminated new hopes for people in the campaigns are going to capitalise on the five-year seat for a leader to a party.
Social Media’s Turn
In contemporary times, be it personal or political (party), the media has been one of the finest tools to work progressively to confront the contentment of the user (person or party). Digital campaigns will half-fry the politics (campaigns) of the state.
How many WhatsApp groups does a political party possess? How many Zoom meetings a party is going to carry? How many ads? How are you going to handle their Twitter, Facebook, Youtube? If positively operated, the campaigns will serve a deeply influenced effect on the voters. In the era of ‘Digital India’, there is nothing bad about digital campaigning.
Maybe a booster dose of the Covid vaccine would attention to the voters and on the campaign screen of the parties. With door-to-door campaigns, digital campaigns will play their position as sufficiently. Since 2014, the BJP has emphasised digital campaigning.
Having realised its importance, during the 2022 elections, digital campaigning will surely benefit the BJP in the state. Other parties are not behind the veil in this political race. Akhilesh Yadav of SP has picked up visible campaigning more charmingly and actively only in recent weeks.
Briefly, election campaigning till the elections are over will fry on the fervour of “Paanch ka dum”, referring to the five workers going door-to-door for voter outreach and digital campaigns.
About the author: Mir Tajamul Islam is a law student at the School of Law, University of Kashmir, and can be reached at mirtajamulislam2@gmail.com.