The Cyber warriors of Congress, BJP and nascent Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are busy fighting pitched battles in social media but Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is still banking on old methods of campaigning. The absence of BSP’s presence in cyber world is worrying the party workers but they are equally confident of charisma of their Supremo Mayawati to pull votes in the favour of the party candidates.
The social media is one of the priority areas of all the political parties and all parties have special cells for the purpose. It is an open fact that the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi owes a lot to the social media for his image building.
The campaign of Congress and AAP is also hectic in the cyber world but BSP seems stuck to the old world when it comes to the election campaigning. Political observers are of the opinions that since the traditional supporters of BSP are still away from the cyber world the party is not focusing on the social media yet.
The BSP candidate from the Tehri lok Sabha constituency Sheeshpal Singh said that his party believes in the tried and tested methods of campaigning like public meetings, door to door campaigns and small nukad meetings. He said that BSP is the cadre based party and it relies on them to convey the message of the party. Singh said that he is focusing more on the neglected sections of society and covering eight to ten villages daily. The District president of BSP M S Koli said that party is taking a plunge in social media albeit slowly but soon its presence would increase.
The party workers however are worried about BSP’s absence in social media and strongly believe that party should change with changing times. In hushed tones they even resent their leader Mayawati’s policy of keeping a distance from media. “Behenji believe that media portrays negative things more about the party than positive ones and prohibits leaders for having much interaction with them but she should accept the modern compulsions now” said one of a party member.