Political parties rethink election strategies amid Omicron wave in India

With India in the grip of the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, political parties have curtailed their hectic and boisterous campaigns and have so far relied on digital campaigns to reach out to voters with a ban on physical rallies and roadshows.

For the upcoming elections in India, candidates are conducting social media campaigns instead of large rallies after they were banned due to Covid-19 restrictions. Getty Images/Xavier Arnau

Restrictions on election campaigns across five poll-bound Indian states will stay in place till the end of this month as daily infections have been hitting the 300,000 mark, said the federal election commission.

Virtual campaign for political parties

The states heading to elections include Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous state with half as many people as the entire European Union. The states of Manipur, Goa, Uttarakhand and Punjab will also be electing new legislatures in February and early March.

Social media messages, digital ambassadors: A sneak-peak into BJP's 'virtual campaign' for assembly elections.UP is estimated to have a population of approximately 22 crores and internet penetration is said to be around 7.5 crore. @PoulomiMSaha https://t.co/WU8m2wc4cH

— snehanshu shekhar (@snehanshus) January 22, 2022

However, the election watchdog has decided to relax some of the guidelines for candidates who will be contesting after consultations with authorities in the poll-bound states.

“The Commission has decided to allow physical public meetings of political parties or contesting candidates in designated open spaces with a maximum of 500 persons or 50% of the capacity of the hall,” a senior official told RFI.

Last year, when a devastating second Covid wave swept the country in April, which saw cases cross 400,000 a day at its peak, it was preceded by elections in five states, and a massive Hindu religious gathering on the banks of the Ganges River.

“There was a lot of public anger for allowing the elections to happen which proved to be a super spreader event. Even the courts came down heavily on the Election Commission to allow crowded campaigns in the middle of the ferocious wave,” political analyst Sanjay Kumar told RFI.

“Now, political parties have been forced to rethink strategies and campaigns.”

From small towns to metro cities, digital campaign designers and digital media campaign companies are working round the clock with experts designing strategies for influential and effective campaigns for their clients.

• Indian drugmaker offers 'safe and tolerable' Omicron vaccine

• Covid spreads among Indian healthcare workers as Omicron wave surges

The Hindu right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party, a primary player in all five poll-bound states, has been extensively using social media to reach out to voters. The party has also decided to hold regular video conferences for voters and face uncomfortable questions from the public.

All other political parties plan to use vans and trucks with LED screens to beam campaign videos across the states, especially in rural areas.

Thinking out of the box

Door-to-door campaigning has been an important mode of electioneering from the very beginning and in the changed situation, parties and candidates have strengthened this mode of election campaigning.

Home minister Amit Shah took part in a doorstep campaign in Uttar Pradesh.

“The campaigns are more focussed now and we are hitting constituencies where we foresee a tough battle and margins can be low,” Aditya Singh, a candidate for the Uttar Pradesh elections told RFI.

Many independent candidates in the electoral fray are using animation and digital banner posters to reach out to voters across constituencies.

#ElectionsWithHT | Ahead of assembly elections in five states, Delhi Chief Minister and AAP convenor #ArvindKejriwal has launched a new digital campaign.

Read more here: https://t.co/pVFfqJoZ1U pic.twitter.com/n5yOuL6rIs

— Hindustan Times (@htTweets) January 24, 2022

Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and messaging fora like WhatsApp, Messenger and Telegram, among others are being extensively used.

Elections for five states will be held in seven phases from February 10. The results will be declared on March 10, the commission announced last week.

The Omicron variant of Coronavirus is now the dominant variant in the country and though there are early indications of a plateau in the number of cases, the election watchdog is not taking any chances having learnt from past experience.

India's total tally of Covid-19 cases increased to over 40 million while the death toll has climbed to over 492,000, according to health ministry data.