As campaigning tool, leaders find social media potent

Sukhmeet Bhasin

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, Janaury 11

Social networking sites such as Facebook and WhatsApp have become important tools of campaigning for elections.

The traditional practices of holding nukkad meetings and interactions in localities seem to be losing ground to new mediums of campaigning.

Candidates keep city residents updated about their campaign and schedule.

The new feature — Facebook Live — is coming handy for politicians in this election season.

Candidates have not shown much interest in Twitter as it is not as popular as other tools are.

SAD candidate Sarup Chand Singla, Congress leader Manpreet Badal and AAP’s Deepak Bansal, all have their Facebook account and fan page quite active with many posts of campaigning.

Manpreet Badal’s relative Jaijeet Johal, who is looking after the social media part, said people were using Whatsapp and Facebook to get updated and so, they were using both mediums for the election campaign.

“We are making people aware of the campaign schedule and meetings. We also post photographs of the rallies and meetings,” he added.

Sarup Chand Singla’s campaign on social media is looked after by his son Dinav Singla.

He also uploads photographs of his father’s day-to-day activities on Facebook and WhatsAap.

AAP candidate Deepak Bansal is also active on social media. He said volunteers were looking after it and they keep the supporters updated through these mediums.

Some leaders are also posting their short speeches on particular issues and are interacting with Facebook users.

A candidate said this was a way of remaining in touch with residents and it didn’t require much energy, money and time.

Candidates are also posting their campaign videos on Youtube.