Warangal: Parties brace for social media blitz

Warangal: The advent of social media extended the reach of its users beyond their imagination. Which other than BJP uses it better? The saffron party's social-media dominance is capable of shaping mainstream media narratives, which in the end make a huge impact in the outcome of elections. The election to the Warangal-Khammam-Nalgonda Graduates constituency is no different with the BJP appears to be ahead of other mainstream parties and independents in using the smart technology for its campaign.

"The summer is peaking, and the March 14 polling is fast approaching. The rise of Covid-19 cases post six-week decline has also become a worrying factor for the candidates and their cadres. Against this backdrop, it's difficult to reach out to five-lakh-odd graduate voters spread across the three erstwhile districts of Warangal, Khammam and Nalgonda. Even though the BJP, Congress and TRS have pressed their several top leaders into the poll campaign, singling out a graduate voter from a huge population is by and large impossible. Hence, the pressure is on their social media teams which were busy creating Facebook, Twitter and Youtube channels besides WhatsApp groups to boost the image of their candidates," G Sriram Reddy, senior BJP leader and Sarpanch of a major gram panchayat, Damera, said.

It may be noted here that compared to the 2015 election, this time around there is a steep increase in the number of graduate voters - from 2.89 lakh to 5.05 lakh. As a result, almost all the candidates in the fray have preferred to catch the educated people during their morning walk. In Warangal, they were frequenting Arts and Science College, Kakatiya University, Waddepally bund etc, where a large number of people gather in the mornings.

A few candidates running for the Grads Council election have already set up tele-caller campaign centres besides flooding the social networking sites with video content.

"Social media memes have become powerful weapons for the parties. From the outset, they look simple but a lot of research was involved in it. Kudos to social media research teams for creating the memes adding apt content," K Sreedhar, who runs online services in Hanamkonda. Banter is acceptable but some of the content produced by the political parties is oppressive. It needs to be changed, he added.

In a Youtube channel, Rani Rudrama said, "A candidate, who is also in the fray for Grads Council seat, has been posting derogatory content, targeting her. It's not fair and such acts will not be spared."