Punjab parties set social media abuzz as digital campaigns kick off

New ECI rules in wake of Covid-19 have sent politicians from the streets to your (mobile) screens, and they are adapting quickly

Punjab’s political parties are taking the coronavirus curveball in their stride and launching multiple campaigns online as a ban on physical rallies and shows soiled their chances to show off their might, thanks to the pandemic.

Main parties in the fray including the ruling Congress and main rivals Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have embraced the digitisation of this key aspect of the election process, coloured by snappy hashtags and catchy slogans.

Followers to fans

As parties go into virtual campaign mode, they will look to utilise the politicians' online follower base to garner votes.

Punjab’s political elite are among the highly followed politicians of India on Facebook and Twitter. Former CM Amarinder Singh has 11.5 lakh followers on Twitter and over 14.66 lakh followers on Facebook.

Shiromani Akali Dal leader Sukhbir Singh Badal has 22 lakh followers on Facebook and 4.12 lakh on Twitter.

Similarly, AAP Punjab president Bhagwant Mann has over 22.6 lakh followers on Facebook and over 5.47 lakh followers on Twitter. Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu has over 16 lakh followers on Facebook and over 10 lakh followers on Twitter.

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From ‘Punjab di ummeed AAP’ to ‘111CongressDubara’, hashtag frenzy begins

As parties decide on their candidates for the much-anticipated polls in the northern state, party members are posting innovative and catchy hashtags and posts on Twitter and other social platforms.

Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi is posing as the people’s CM to woo voters and is using the hashtag “Lokan da CM” (people’s CM) and “Lokan di sarkaar” (people’s government). The Congress is also using the hashtag ‘111CongressDubara’ marking 111 days of Channi in power.

“The idea behind is to say that in his 111-day tenure as Punjab CM, Channi has put in 1100 days of work for the common people of Punjab,” Kamaljit Singh Brar, president, Moga district Congress committee told The Indian Express.

Meanwhile, Akali Dal has borrowed from the BJP’s ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ and is using hashtags like “100 saal vikas de, vishwas de’ (100 years of trust and development) as the party completes 100 years in the state.

A newcomer in the state, AAP is portraying itself as the ‘hope’ of Punjab with hashtags ‘Punjab di ummeed’ (Punjab’s hope) and “KejriwalDiGuarentee” (Kejriwal’s guarantee).

The party, in the latter half of 2021, had also made a couple of reels on Instagram that were trending at the time in a bid to win over the meme-hooked and trend-savvy youth.

Captain Amarinder Singh is vowing to come back to power with his new party which has the symbol of a hockey stick and a ball, with the caption “Bas hun goal karna baaki’.

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