Stock of influencers gains after Karnataka Poll
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, May 21: Now, influencers have parity with intellectuals, as far as outreach by political parties is concerned. Influencers can swing elections, and prove to be instrumental in the making of counter narrative.
The month-long outreach of the Bharatiya Janata Party, beginning May 30 to commemorate the ninth anniversary of the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre, has a special focus to connect with social media influencers.
In the just concluded Karnataka Assembly election, the Congress was seen to have outsmarted the BJP in employing the influencers to swing the narrative. The influencers were seen peddling the Congress narrative and came from a cross-section of the society, which included working and former journalists, businessmen, artists, and others who commanded massive social media followings on various platforms.
“From the state unit chief of the BJP to the unit head at the block level, there has to be interactions with influencers and they should be part of the party’s strategy for the elections on a big scale,” said a senior BJP functionary, while sharing the party’s changed strategy on the back of the Karnataka verdict.
The Karnataka-based influencers sympathetic to the Congress are being credited to have decimated the outreach of the BJP chief JP Nadda to the intellectuals and Finance Minister Nirmala Sithraman to the people through small group meetings.
The influencers devoured Nadda’s repeated claims that “Karnataka shouldn’t not miss out of the blessings of Modi ji”. The influencers conveniently linked Nadda’s statements made before the intellectuals, with aim to push the double-engine government narrative, with the pride of Karnataka. “Even those who had followers in a few thousands gained reach in lakhs, in likes and retweets, as they sought to hit out at the BJP for hurting the pride of Karnataka. Clearly, the influencers were working with strategy with command structure, which gave them the scale,” added the BJP functionary.
The influencers also buried the BJP’s electioneering by turning spotlight on the divided house narrative after the Lingayata leader Jagdish Shettar quit the party to join the Congress. Former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai taking nap during the 100th episode broadcast of Mann Ki Baat was again a fodder to the ammunitions of the influencers, who also claimed that the “BJP workers ran the ground to shower flowers on Modi during the Bengaluru roadshow”.
The influencers are also being credited to have run a coordinated campaign to take the wind out of the sail of Modi’s attempt to cash in on personalized attacks against him by the likes of Congress president Mallikarjuna Kharge.
Now, the BJP wants to get even with the Opposition by getting on the right side of influencers. The BJP IT Cell is widely known to have been working with influencers, but the saffron outfit is now searching for fresh legs after testing defeat in the Karnataka Poll.
About The Author
