Rajeev Dwivedi is busy these days strategizing campaigning for candidates contesting in the ensuing municipal elections in the state. But he has nothing to do with politics.
This narration may sound more like a riddle. With the growing influence of social media, backroom players like Dwivedi are the go to person for any political party or candidate to influence voters.
In the ensuing municipal elections, which are largely urban affairs, the demand for social media outreach is naturally more as the urbanized people are more prone to be influenced by this medium of communication.
The use of social media for political outreach has already exploded in the state in recent years. Both the main political parties, the BJP and the Congress used social media to their advantage in 2018 assembly polls.
In the ensuing civic body polls social media is expected to play a bigger role.
Dwivedi, a senior official of Konsole, a leading digital marketing group, admitted the important role the digital marketing will play in deciding the fate of candidates in municipal elections.
“The ensuing municipal polls will be much more convenient for the electioneering purpose as the desired target group can well be filtered,” he said.
He further informed that there are two main players in this field. The other major player is the Banyan Tree.
More than 60% of the candidates have approached digital marketing groups for services such as campaigning through Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter as well as bulk SMSs, he informed.
The official further informed that their business was limited to the developed urban areas of Chhattisgarh namely Raipur, Bhilai, Durg, Raigarh and Bilaspur. Though candidates of lesser developed urban areas are also using this platform, in those areas reach is restricted to a greater extent, he said. The Chinese short-video app TikTok, which was launched in India just last year, is already exploding in usage, especially among the rural youth.
Apart from the digital marketing groups, political parties also have their respective social media and IT cell to supplement digital campaigning of the parties.
Spokesperson of State Congress Sushil Anand Shukla admits that the social media this time will be decisive in contacting the voters. He claimed that their social media cell was this time well equipped to woo the voters.
Notably, a total of 35.3 lakh voters could exercise their franchise in the elections to be held in 9 Municipal Corporations, 38 Municipal Councils and 103 Nagar Panchayats on December 21.
About 1.25 lakh will be the first time voters. These first time voters are the main targets of the candidates as they are social media savvy.