First time voters to trigger war on web'

Chennai: With first time voters making up nearly 12 per cent of the Chennai votebank, political parties are of the opinion that a strong social media campaign will be decisive in the 2016 Assembly elections.

Chennai’s 16 constituencies is the highest for a revenue district and parties are mindful of the fact that wooing the young voter would be decisive in clinching similar urban locales.

Social media entrepreneur Kiruba Shankar believes that a custom-made social media strategy will be key to winning over Chennai’s “digital natives.”

“It will be a mistake if political parties stick to their traditional talk-heavy and talk-down approach. The young voter does not go to a political rally, he/she does not watch too much television or read newspapers even. They spend their time on social media sites like Facebook,” he said.

It is a situation that J. Anbazhagan, DMK’s MLA from Chepauk-Triplicane constituency, acknowledges. Anbazhagan, who is active on both Facebook and Twitter, feels that politicians are under increased pressure as every word of theirs is scrutinised.

“We could be right or wrong with our opinions but unlike a political rally, our words reach even more people and there is greater feedback too,” he said.
Anbazhagan believes that more politicians should embrace social media platforms. “With social media, we can deliver targeted messages to different age groups, something which is not possible in a rally,” he added.

But while DMK leaders M. Karunanidhi and M.K. Stalin both have their social media presence, the ruling AIADMK has no individuals with a significant web footprint.

“That is because the high command has put the party over individuals,” said an AIADMK legislator, preferring anonymity.

VCK general secretary, D. Ravikumar said that inner party democracy was key to establishing a lead in the Internet campaign war.

“To put it in a nutshell, parties should allow their cadre to utilise social media to help evolve a personality, which can be to their advantage. But the fact is that only smaller parties afford that privilege to their cadre. In the larger parties where there are more than one leader online, the space is only utilised to further their propaganda,” he said.

Aspire K. Swaminathan, AIADMK’s IT wing secretary, told DC that the party are the pioneers of digital campaigning. He said that the AIADMK’s website has an ALEXA ranking of 54,000 out of the over 10 crore websites in India. “No other party even comes close to the activity on our website. In fact, we have recruited 12 lakh members online,” he added.

But where all major parties failed to score brownie points, according to V. Balaji, BJP’s IT wing state president, was during the Chennai floods. “The BJP’s official Twitter handle was tagged in almost every other tweet during the Chennai floods,” he said.

Though the BJP has an “engaging” social media presence, according to Balaji, the party would refrain from targeting individuals through memes, which experts believe could be an interesting campaign tool.

“Memes help capture youngsters’ attention. A photo along with text content in it reaches many more people and also because it has an entertainment quotient attached to it,” said Kiruba Shankar.

PMK’s chief ministerial candidate Anbumani Ramadoss, who has himself been a meme target, acknowledges the potential it holds. “Right now, the DMK and the AIADMK are indulged in a meme war and we are watching from afar.

Absolutely, we will be utilising memes but only good concept memes,” said Anbumani. “Though I have been targeted, it is not quite on the likes of DMDK’s Vijaykanth or DMK’s Stalin. Vijaykanth is a worldwide phenomenon in memes and I personally enjoyed Stalin’s dance during his Ooty Namakku Naame trip,” Anbumani added.

AIADMK cadres are of the opinion that the party, despite its rigid policy concerning social media currently, could change if necessary. “If there is a social media campaign war, we have the bandwidth to launch a counter offensive as well,” remarked a senior party cadre.