When campaign shifts from street corners to virtual space

Mixed reactions to election campaign in Thiruvananthapuram as traditional methods like rallies struggle against social media dominance.

With reels and trolls taking centre stage as major electioneering tools, the general election campaign evokes mixed reactions from the electorate when campaigning crossed the half-way mark in Kerala.

A major issue faced by the candidates is that rallies of political parties ahead of street corner meetings have failed to attract people other than party workers.  

N. Sreekumar, political observer, told The Hindu that earlier a few announcement vehicles engaged by the candidates used to tour every lane and bylane in rural and urban areas ahead of the corner meetings, drumming up excitement. This would naturally catch the imagination of a wide spectrum of people, especially labourers, cutting across party lines. Now, the messages for the meetings were passed through social media platforms like WhatsApp. The major disadvantage of the new system was that the message would be circulated only among groups of party workers and not through groups formed for other purposes or family groups. As a result, the meetings would be conspicuous by the absence of commoners other than party workers, said Mr. Sreekumar. Though a pilot announcement vehicle heralded the convoy of the candidate, it could not bring together people from different strata of society in short notice, he said. 

Vinod Kumar E.N., party worker and announcer who even announced during the electioneering works of the late Chief Minister K. Karunakaran and his son K. Muraleedharan in the Thirssur Parliament constituency in the nineties, said the number of corner meetings had now drastically come down. The event management groups that took over the business from local party workers lacked grassroots-level knowledge. For instance, if the announcer of the pilot vehicle was a party worker, he/she could clearly tell the areas where the candidates held sway over his/her rivals and vice versa, he said.

Madhu Madhurima, member of the Light and Sound Welfare Association Kerala, said the emergence of social media and event management groups had come as a major setback for the traditional players in the light and sound sector. “After the constituency-level convention meeting of the candidates, we hardly received any business so far. The majority of the pilot vehicles are now provided by event management groups. The absence of enough number of corner meetings has also come as a major blow to us,” said Mr. Madhu.

Apart from this, the shrinking space for traditional poll graffiti and parody songs that pep up the election spirit has also left the artists in the sector high and dry.

The political parties were even finding it difficult to muster enough party workers to distribute slips and notices of candidates to homes, said Mr. Sreekumar, who, however, added that the emergence of social media had helped the parties reach out to different age groups through a variety of content.