The Samajwadi Party has launched its YouTube channel ‘Bicycle TV’ to boost its presence in the digital platform. Bicycle is the election symbol of the SP.
The SP is bracing itself for a do or die battle in the 2022 UP Assembly elections and is keen to extend its digital reach to the people in the challenging coronavirus pandemic times.
The move is in step with the increasing trend among political parties to adopt remote audio-visual means to inform and influence people.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has already launched virtual election meetings in Bihar where LED TV sets are installed in villages and the party leaders address meetings from Delhi. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has also addressed several virtual rallies.
The soft launch of the Bicycle TV was held on August 15, with Independence Day message by party president Akhilesh Yadav.
During the last fortnight, the SP media team has been handling the channel. So far it has uploaded a dozen short documentaries. Most of them target UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and the ruling BJP on various issues, while others are publicising the party and its previous government’s achievements.
“The channel will be used to beam campaign, propagation of the party’s ideas and ideologies, previous SP government’s achievements, party’s future programmes, announcements, expose the ruling party and their lies, live press conferences and live party events,” said SP national secretary and former UP minister Abhishek Mishra.
If in ‘Mission 2022’: the bicycle nudges people to vote for the party in the 2022 UP Assembly elections, then ‘Save UP, the heart of India’ targets the UP government and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. One short film is focused on Agra-Lucknow Expressway and another one on 108 ambulance service, while ‘Samajwadi Hausala (socialist grit) highlights the lath-charge on SP youth volunteers in the incident of August 28.
Some other Bicycle TV video stories are: Bhagwan sabke hain (God belongs to all); Mismanagement of government hospitals in COVID-19 and Dharti Putra Mulayam Singh Yadav — the political journey of party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav.
The party has a team of media experts, researchers, curators, photographers and videographers that is creating content for the Bicycle TV.
The SP is the only regional party in UP to have an active channel, though it is not the first one to venture into it. The Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) had launched a channel three years ago but it has been dormant for two years. The Bahujan Samaj Party does not have one yet.
Both Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress have their active YouTube channels with a large subscription base, but they are of the national outfit and not of regional parties.