In Kerala, no takers for social media in uencers in politics
The practice of wooing voters by using social media in uencers from other sectors as election campaigners is not prevalent in the State. As such, the absence of a voice that in uences political choice is apparent especially during this election season
search on the web for top social media in uencers in Kerala throws up an entire list from technology and automobile to travel, fashion, lifestyle and even cooking. But for a highly political society, politics remains a glaring miss from that list.
As such, the absence of a voice, a la Dhruv Rathee with millions of followers, that in uences political choice is apparent especially during this election season.
Neither is the practice of wooing voters by using popular social media in
uencers from other sectors as election campaigners, which is an accepted practice elsewhere, prevalent here.
Sebastian Paul, a social
Acritic, feels it is unsurprising as an average Malayali, irrespective of social strata, thinks he knows it all when it comes to politics and considers being inuenced by someone else infra dig. That is also why an actor like Prem Nazir despite his unparalleled popularity bit the dust at the hustings.
“Aristotle’s statement that man is a political animal could have been about Kerala. When in need of political guidance, people here had looked up to political stalwarts like AKG and EMS who in a way were their in uencers,” Mr. Paul said.
Partisan society
Advocate A. Jayasankar attributed the absence of political social media in
uencers to the highly partisan Kerala society.
He, however, feels social media is being eciently utilised by the CPI (M) and the Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) while the Congress lags behind.
‘Not easily in uenced’
“Because everyone is politically partisan, credibility becomes dubious. The audience is equally partisan with clear political aliations and is not easy to be in uenced,” said Mr. Jayasankar, who, incidentally, is one of the rare voices who regularly airs political opinions through YouTube.
Sarin P., convener, State Digital Media Cell, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee, dubbed in uencing the electorate through social media in uencers in some way an ethical practice. He, however, said that the party coordinates social media voices, which express pro-Congress democratic values on their own.
“There may not be a social in uencer like Dhruv Rathee who backs up his opinions with data. But there are others who may not be political social in
uencers by denition but nevertheless do political messaging. Only, their social media posts are either emotionally loaded or driven by misinformation,” Mr. Sarin said.
Memes to analysis
Santhosh George Kulangara, a popular travel vlogger and founder of Safari TV, felt that there is no space for social media in uencers when it comes to politics in Kerala. That space, he said, is occupied by the social media divisions of television channels and media.
“Political content by political parties on social media nowadays is marked with a certain degree of aggression and is mostly in the form of memes. The analytical content is mostly left to the media and when they do that, there is a lot more credibility,” Mr. Kulangara said.
Chief Electoral Ocer (Kerala) Sanjay Kaul on Wednesday termed baseless the allegations that election ocials were negligent in their handling of votes cast at home by voters aged above 85 years and those in the persons with disabilities (PwD) category.
Guidelines issued
In a statement, Mr. Kaul said guidelines had been issued to district-level election ocers, including District Collectors, to collect the home-voted ballots in sealed boxes. This was how the home voting operations were progressing in the State.
However, images of carry bags being used to transport the necessary stationery “in a misleading manner” in some media, following which ocials were asked to examine the issue. “It has been claried that the allegations are unfounded,” Mr. Kaul said.