Social Media and 2014 Elections in India

In the campaigning for the 2014 Assembly Elections in India, Social Media surely is neck and neck with the mainstream media (MSM). There are dedicated IT cells of every major party and especially of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Indian National Congress and Aam Aadmi Party, who have been steadily building up the social media offensive over the past several months. And now with just a few more weeks before the election process comes to a close on 16 May, it's an all out blitzkrieg, with ad agencies, party workers, loyal supporters and volunteers providing equal amount of firepower. And all this for building up favourable opinion among friends, family, followers and the occasional passer-by (page visitor), who form a large chunk of the Indian electorate.

Even MSM has jumped on to the Social Media bandwagon, for airing and publishing election stories and debates. Hashtag wars on Twitter are being used by MSM during debates and interviews, as well as for providing bytes of viewers' opinions during these programs. Facebook is being used for promoting articles, hashtags playing a lesser role here. Facebook is also being used for organizing and promoting interviews by MSM channels. Then there are Hangouts on Google+ which are being used for interviewing party candidates or for interaction with the voters, which are aired live.

Besides the major three SM networks, there are the usual blogs, YouTube videos, ask-me-anything (AMA) sessions and several more ways in which the interwebs is influencing the 2014 mandate in India.

One important message everyone is airing is for the voters to go out and vote. Polling numbers have been encouraging in the first 3 phases, and is expected to be a lot better than earlier elections in the remaining 6 phases.

This election in India is being fought as much online as it is being fought in the minds of the voter, and in the real world!