Chennai: With the state to witness five-cornered contests in the Assembly elections for the first time, political parties in the state have taken to the social media to lure young, first-time voters whose vote may determine the victory of candidates in closely contested polls. From fledging DMDK-People's Welfare Alliance to the Dravidian majors AIADMK and DMK, all parties have launched aggressive social media campaigns.
They are trying to take a cue from the resounding success of Narendra Modi in the 2014 LS polls, who, made the social media like Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp an integral part of his election campaign. On Saturday, the supporters of DMDK-PWA Front set Twitter abuzz with hashtag #ThisTime4MNK that began trending. They came out with "#ThisTime4MNK" after the pre poll surveys predicted victory for the ruling AIADMK in the ensuing polls.
“It is not a planned campaign by us. One supporter of the alliance came out with #ThisTime4MNK tweet and others joined to making it ‘trending’ on twitter,” says R. Sindhan of CPI (M)'s IT wing. He added that the hashtag trended for over four hours. Mr Sindhan said that the volunteers of the four parties — MDMK, VCK, CPI (M) and CPI — are working together in creation of social media content and handling of the Facebook, Twitter and website (www.makkalnalan.org) of the alliance. “Unlike other parties who have engaged professional companies to handle their social media strategy, we are purely dependent on the support of volunteers to reach out,” he said.
The DMK IT wing and its supporters had kept social media active for months with coverage of its party treasurer Stalin’s ‘Namakku Namme’ road show. DMK Chennai West district secretary J. Anbazhagan, an active social media user, said that at least 10 per cent of voters in a constituency could be reached through social media in the city.
