How Political Parties In UP Are Planning "Digital Campaigns" Amid Covid

All parties also plan to use vans and trucks with LED screens to beam campaign videos across the state, especially in rural areas.

With the Uttar Pradesh election just months away and the country grappling with the third wave of the Covid pandemic, political parties are set to rely on digital campaigns more than ever for the crucial state election in India's most populous state.

Congress leader and the party's Uttar Pradesh campaign in charge Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will go live on her social media pages later this afternoon, to speak about the party's women centric 'ladki hoon lad sakti hoon (I'm a girl and can fight)' campaign. In a press release, the party said workers and the public will both be able to ask questions to Ms Vadra during the interaction.

The shift to virtual for the Congress comes after it took a call a few days ago to suspend ground rallies and campaigns for a fortnight, the first party to make such an announcement in Uttar Pradesh. The decision came after a marathon organised by Congress leaders in the Bareilly town, where thousands of mostly unmasked young girls took part in the event, led to a near stampede situation. The party says more digital campaigns will follow soon.

The Samajwadi Party has not made any official statement on digital campaigns so far, but its social media war room was active during the 2017 assembly polls too and sources say the plan is to take the social media game up by many notches.