Technology has made considerable in-roads into our lives and during this Lok Sabha election; many political parties have used it for their benefit. In the following sections, we will see how.
Tech Savvy Politicians
Congress
Many of the tech savvy politicians are using television, print and online media to the best use. As for example Congress candidate from Bangalore South, Nandan Nilekani and his team have sent direct print mailers to all the voters in their constituency to improve visibility among voters.
The mailers that were sent included Nandan’s credentials with the mailers addressed to senior member of the home and listed the members in the hour who were eligible to vote in this election. The mailer also provided details about polling stations they will have to go. For all this information, they used the EC’s public data and relate with other public data available from other sources.
TMC
Similarly, Derek O’Brien who is spokesperson for TMC tells that the party has a 360-degree approach with 12 thirty-degree arcs, which comprise how the party functions with social media being an important part and one of the arcs in their 360-degree approach. In social media, the party has good presence as compared to other regional parties with party supremo Mamata Banerjee having good presence on Facebook and Derek himself very active on Twitter. The TMC website is also updated on a hourly basis all day long and the party has taken part in several Google+ Hangouts.
BJP
Coming to BJP that has so far been on the forefront of using technology to the best of its use, we see that the party has put in several efforts to use technology to the maximum advantage. BJP has Blackberry and Whatsapp channel, Voice Call channel plus Yuva Internet TV. Modi uses online medium to interact with people and many times his speeches are broadcast live together at several places, which has been made possible by use of technology.
AAP
AAP is not behind in using technology with party being very active on social media like Facebook and Twitter. They have mobile friendly pages to reach rural people who access the web on their mobiles only. Campaigns are supported by use of voice messages, SMS and mails with separate teams handling social media channels for national and state level campaigns.
Thus, as can be seen, the political parties have understood that technology is an effective medium to reach voters and spread their message. The present Lok Sabha election has seen political parties making good use of technology and it is going to increase further in the coming years.
