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Parties flap social media

wings to fly high in polls

ayawati and her Bahujan Sa- cian, or for that matter any one, uses tweets
maj Party have finally joined to attack his or her rivals is an open secret.
The LasT social media. It was strange Mayawati’s party losing substantial sup-
that the four-time chief
port in scheduled caste communities to
Word M minister, former MP and rivals like the BJP may be attributed to the
social media campaign run by the saffron
arguably the most prominent contempo-
Abdul WAsey rary Dalit leader in the country took so long party against the elephant’s followers. As a
to make an entry into the Twitterverse. Par- younger Dalit leadership emerges with the
ticularly when even small-time politicians entry of Jignesh Mevani and Chandrashek-
are propagating their point of views on har Azad, @SushriMayawati needs to
almost all the issues through various online make her presence felt among her base,
social networking mediums. Some popu- as well as the youth. And it is not possi-
lar leaders in the country tweet more than ble without staying active on the social
100 times a day. Quite possibly, she may be networking websites.
looking only at the negative aspects of stay- How she and the BSP handle the inevi-
ing active on Twitter when she said in the table rudeness and vulgarity in the social
past that the social media platform is not media wrestling is yet to be seen. But one
relevant to her brand of politics. Reports thing is clear that one more strong player
suggest that she had even dis-
tanced the BSP from accounts Online networking
running in its name.
She was right in a way as sites are not known
social media is not known for
helping politicians all the time. to help the cause of
Sometimes, it simply trips them politicians all the
up. First it lulls them into a false
sense of security — reward- time. Sometimes, they
ing chit chat about their daily simply trip them up
routine or their constituency,
welcoming them into an envi-
ronment where almost every- has joined the political battle, which is being
one is free to tweet unguarded fought in the cyberspace. The 2019 Lok Sab-
thoughts and opinions. Then, at ha polls will be won by the one who plays
some unspecified but certain well on the social networking websites.
point, it brutally shames them This has been happening since 2014 gen-
in front of the whole world. Almost every eral elections. It will happen again. For this
post an individual or organisation could be reason, every party is devoting most of its
twisted by the rivals and their followers. A time and energy on online campaigning to
lot of energy is wasted in allegations and reach wider audience in much less time. So
counter-allegations. The social media user far there are no set rules to engage on these
is required to be on its toes almost 24 hours online platforms. The good news is that
every day for an offence or defence. Facebook, which has an estimated 300 mil-
But not joining social media has its own lion users in India, is readying itself for the
set of problems. The BSP, for example, had election-related dramas. Twitter and other
found itself playing catch-up in the recent key social networking websites should also
past on several issues — from the death take a cue from it and devise strategy to stop
of Rohith Vemula and flogging of Dalits their misuse during polls.
at Una in Gujarat to mobilisations by the
Bhim Army in Western UP. How a politi- letters@tehelka.com

Tehelka / 28 february 2019 66 www.Tehelka.com