Road shows, social media live streaming to engage voters

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, January 13

Leaving no stone unturned to get across their message and reach out to voters, candidates from political parties are resorting to different ways of campaigning. From artsy posters to road shows and social media, the candidates are doing everything to grab the voter’s attention.

Leading the social media bandwagon is AAP, who has been using technology for a majority of its campaigning, along with door-to-door methods. “Most of our candidates are now in the second leg of their door-to-door campaigning, which is our preferred method of campaigning. Since, our party runs on a low budget, we don’t spend much on campaigning methods and sticking to door-to-door campaigning has proved effective,” informs Gurbhej Singh, AAP’s media in charge for the Majha region. He claims that most of the candidates have covered 70 per cent of the respective constituencies in door-to-door.

“We use social media tools like Whatsaap and live streaming on Facebook to reach out to people. Our volunteers also engage people in mohalla meets during campaigning to know about the core issues of the area,” he says.

Roadshows are another way of campaigning popular with some candidates. Senior Congress leader and general secretary of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee took out a road show meeting with voters as his volunteers held up colourful posters and banners. Relative newcomer and a young candidate from the Apna Punjab party from the Amritsar central constituency, Keshav Kohli, too led a road show comprising youth inside the walled city. “The point is to get voters’ attention as a newcomer. We have a team of volunteers, who interact with live communities on Facebook to discuss every day issues and gather response. Since for newcomers, funds are always a problem, one has to find out innovative and effective ways to interact and reach out to voters,” says Kohli.