Covid clouds over UP elections
Mir Tajamul Islam
Legislative Assembly elections are intended to be held in Uttar Pradesh from 10 February to 7 March 2022 in seven phases to ordain all 403 members of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly.
The covid (omicron wave) had rung the catastrophic bell in the subcontinent, including Uttar Pradesh, election seasons, election campaigns and public rallies. The positive preparations on elections, the election rallies which were at its warming pace had, all of a sudden, frozen to zero.
The Election Commission recently imposed a ban on rallies, road shows and big meetings for a week in five states going to polls- Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa, Manipur, including Uttar Pradesh. But it has allowed political parties to carry out door-to-door voter outreach with five workers and digital campaigns.
Who is going to get the benefit? Who is going to lose? How will the consequences of digital campaigns revolve over the results of elections? What will be the strategies of the political parties to cover the elections under the covid (omicron) cloud?
More the workers (cadre), more the benefit
The politics of Uttar Pradesh is dominated by the three big bulls; Bharatiya Janata Party, Samajwadi Party, and the Bahujan Samaj Party.
No doubt UP is divided into myriad classes; upper and lower, castes, sub-castes. Familiarly, ahead of the 2022 Uttar Pradesh polls, political parties are going all out to strengthen their caste-centric vote banks.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) owns its army- The RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sang); which had interactions with the people all over the state and also maintain the party’s social and political portrayal alive, during and after the elections.
Therefore, that is why there are fewer worries Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had to overlook the recent tragedy of quitting some MLAs from the party. The (dedicated) and a popular army of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) on the ground will work to spread the campaign message and will do the most important thing on voting day; get the vote in favour of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP).
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) might smell the blessings more easily by the acting parallel force (RSS). The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) also has a committed voter root that will vote for them, as glimpsed in the former elections. These are mainly (jatav) voters. The Samajwadi Party (SP), on the other script, has the more-or-less faithful MY (Muslim-Yadav) component. Thus, BSP and SP also might watch the essence of dedicated (particular) vote banks (classes and castes).
Five workers, as clarified by the EC for door to door election campaign (voter outreach), are sufficient for political parties to recognize the victory. The five (5) workers with scripted and laminated new hopes for the people in the campaigns are going to capitalize the Five (5) year seat for a leader to a party.
Social and print media’s turn
In contemporary times, from personal to political (party), Media is one of the finest tools that work progressively to confront the contentment of the user (person or party). Digital campaigns will half fry the politics (campaigns) of the state.
How many WhatsApp groups does a political party possess? How many zoom meetings a party is going to carry? How many ads? How are you going to handle Twitter, Facebook, Youtube? If positively operated, the campaigns will serve a deeply influenced effect on the voters.
In the era of “Digital India”, there is no wrong at “Digital Campaigning”. Maybe a booster dose of covid vaccine would earn mandatory attention towards the voters and on the campaign screen of the parties. With door to door campaigns, digital campaigns will play their position as sufficiently.
Since 2014, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has emphasised on digital campaigning —whether through social media or uploading rally speeches online. Having realised the importance of it, here in the 2022 elections, it will benefit the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state.
Other parties are not behind the veil, in this political race. SP’s Akhilesh Yadav has picked up visible campaigning only in recent weeks, more charmingly and actively. Briefly, the UP election, politics, election campaigns will fry on the fervour of ” Paanch ka dum”; the 5 workers door to door voter outreach and digital campaigns.
(The author is a law student at the school of law, University of Kashmir)
