Rallies Banned Over Covid, BJP, Congress Campaign Online In Uttarakhand

The BJP and the Congress in Uttarakhand are making the most of social media to reach out to voters with less than a month to go before the state elections on February 14 amid Covid curbs.

With the Election Commission banning physical rallies as Covid cases continue to surge in the country, the BJP has already held 18 virtual meetings through its two studios in Dehradun and Haldwani, the party's IT head Himanshu Sangtani told news agency PTI.

The meetings were addressed by several party leaders, including Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, state BJP president Madan Kaushik, Union Minister of State Ajay Bhatt, former Union Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, and Vijay Bahuguna, he said.

"The chief speaker and the candidate join the electorate from these studios at the virtual meetings and we stream the address live through Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube," he said.

"Each of the virtual meetings held so far got around one lakh views on an average," Mr Sangtani said.

With Covid curbs likely to be eased from February 1, more virtual rallies addressed by the party's star campaigners - Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and BJP president JP Nadda - will be held, he said.

The schedule of the programmes to be addressed by the party's star campaigners is being worked out in Delhi, he said.

Social media platforms like Facebook are also being used by the party to connect with the electorate, party functionaries said.

"There are around 35 lakh Facebook users in Uttarakhand and we have reached out to about 20 lakh of them," BJP's internet media cell head Shekhar Verma said.

When asked whether candidates have a disadvantage due to the restrictions on actual poll rallies, Mr Verma said that though there can be no substitutes to actual meetings where candidates connect directly with voters, social media outreach has become hassle-free with almost everyone owning a smartphone.

The Congress has also deployed its team of 400 social media volunteers to spread the party's message using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and around 150 of its official WhatsApp groups, the party's media cell coordinator Amarjeet Singh said.

A team of 50 content creators conceives and designs the matter that is circulated in the form of audio-video clips or cartoons to take the failures of the BJP government and the achievements of previous Congress governments to the masses through social media platforms, he said. "For example, around 50,000 users joined the party's campaign of "Char Dham, Char Kam" which was trending across social media platforms on Monday," Amarjeet Singh claimed.

The Congress launched the theme song of its election campaign - "Char Dham Char Kam" - in Dehradun on Monday, with four promises to people if elected to power. These included Rs 40,000 per year to five lakh families in the state and not letting the LPG cylinder price cross Rs 500.

The party has not held many virtual meetings so far except a few addressed by Harish Rawat from Delhi for Almora and Didihat constituencies as most prominent party leaders were in the national capital until recently, he said.

"Now most of them are back and the process will pick up momentum in the coming days. The easing of Covid curbs likely from February 1 will also bring some relief to us as larger rallies of around 500 people will be possible," he said.