Social Media to play a key role in 2019 Lok Sabha elections

Election 2019 will be an intense, high-stakes tussle for power like all others but with one difference in a first, it is likely to be as hotly contested in the virtual world as in the real one with parties already busy getting their social media warriors battle-ready.

Social media played a key role in propelling the BJP to power in 2014, but is set to take on a different dimension altogether in 2019 with the opposition led by the Congress getting their arsenal ready to combat the ruling party’s formidable cyber army.

War rooms are getting ready and thousands of volunteers being trained in data analytics and communication through digital platforms as parties, including not just the Congress and the BJP but also smaller players like the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), prep for the electoral battle ahead.

The Congress, which seems to have learnt its lessons from 2014, is scaling up its operations to challenge the BJP on a front which has been the saffron party’s forte.

The process to widen the Congress’ digital presence started a long time ago and digital war rooms have already been set up in every state, said the party’s social media department head Divya Spandana.

Prashant Kishor joins JD(U) ahead of Lok Sabha polls

Poll strategist Prashant Kishor joined Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) here on Sunday, party sources said.

Kishor was inducted into the party by Kumar, who is also the national president of the JD(U), at the organisation’s state executive meeting which is underway at the chief minister’s official residence, the sources said.

Kumar welcomed the 41-year-old into the party by presenting him with an “angavastram” (stole) and the poll strategist was given a seat next to the chief minister at the state executive meet, they said.

It was not immediately known what role he has been assigned to in the party wherein he has been inducted barely a few months ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

Earlier, Kishor had tweeted “excited to start my new journey from Bihar”.

A resident of Buxar district in the state, Kishor had shot to fame in 2014 when he managed the poll campaign for Narendra Modi, then the prime ministerial candidate of the BJP, which went on to put up its best-ever electoral performance.

A year later, he collaborated with Kumar who returned to power for his third consecutive term after registering a handsome victory in the assembly polls which the JD(U) had fought in alliance with the RJD and the Congress.