WhatsApp groups, virtual rallies and war rooms: BJP’s upper hand ahead of Bihar polls

12 September 2020
Amit Shah, the union minister for home affairs, addressed a virtual rally, the Bihar Jan Samvad, from the headquarters of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Delhi, on 7 June. It was the first rally by any political party for the upcoming assembly elections in Bihar. The BJP is a part of the ruling alliance in the state led by the Janata Dal (United).
Arun Sharma/PTI
Amit Shah, the union minister for home affairs, addressed a virtual rally, the Bihar Jan Samvad, from the headquarters of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Delhi, on 7 June. It was the first rally by any political party for the upcoming assembly elections in Bihar. The BJP is a part of the ruling alliance in the state led by the Janata Dal (United).
Arun Sharma/PTI

“We have formed over one lakh WhatsApp groups in order to circulate positive news to influence voters,” Manan Krishna, the convenor of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s IT cell in Bihar, said. The upcoming assembly elections in Bihar, expected to be held in October or November, will be the first polls held in India during the novel coronavirus pandemic. The Election Commission of India has released broad guidelines for the conduct of elections during COVID-19, and some recommendations specific to Bihar. These include restrictions on physical campaigning. As a result, political parties have ramped up their digital infrastructure in order to connect with voters, and the BJP, which is a part of the ruling coalition in the state, seems to be far ahead of all its rivals and allies.

The term of Bihar’s legislative assembly ends on 29 November, and the ECI has said it will hold elections to vote in a new government in time, though the dates have not been announced yet. However, according to Krishna, the BJP has been in poll mode since the beginning of 2020. “We started preparing in February, and now it looks like we will need to rely more on the virtual medium,” he said. In fact, the BJP kicked off its virtual electioneering with the Bihar Jan Samvad, a virtual rally by the union minister of home affairs, Amit Shah, from Delhi, on 7 June. According to a PTI report, around ten thousand LED screens and more than fifty thousand smart televisions were installed across the state to reach out to voters. Sanjay Jaiswal, the state BJP president, claimed that around forty lakh people across Bihar watched Shah’s rally. While these numbers have been contested, Krishna told me that the speech was live streamed at all the 72,227 booths in the state.

According to Krishna, the BJP’s WhatsApp network is expected to reach two crore people, and will cover every single polling booth in the state. “We wanted to penetrate till the booth level, which we have successfully done,” he said, and added that “the content on these groups will be completely positive.” He told me that they were given explicit “instructions to keep it that way by the party leadership at the central and state levels. Our government has done a lot, which we will be highlighting.” The ruling alliance currently consists of the Janata Dal (United)—led by Nitish Kumar, the incumbent chief minister—the BJP, the Lok Janshakti Party and five independents. “Whatever we put on Facebook and Twitter is what we will push on WhatsApp,” Krishna claimed.

Tushar Dhara is a reporting fellow with The Caravan. He has previously worked with Bloomberg News, Indian Express and Firstpost and as a mazdoor with the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan in Rajasthan.

Keywords: Bihar Elections 2020 BJP WhatsApp BJP IT cell RJD Janata Dal (United) Indian National Congress
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