The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
Family feud unresolved, SP leaders fret about M-Y votes and BJP
POSTED ON the AAP Punjab Facebook page, the illustration has all the election players inside or around a wrestling ring. AAP MP Bhagwant Mann lifts deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal on his shoulders as Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal offers his son a helping hand, while state Congress chief Captain Amarinder Singh watches from a distance.
Shared 8,000 times with over 3,000 likes, the illustration drew an animated response from the Congress, a 25-second video with 1,100 likes and 337 shares so far. Here, the bout shows Amarinder throwing AAP’S Arvind Kejriwal out of the wrestling ring.
The social media contest began long before the poll date was announced last week. Each of the four parties is running a war room with a young team, and each car claims to have surpassed the other.
“There is no comparison with Akali Dal on social media,” SAD’S IT wing state president Parminder Singh Brar told The Indian Express. “We are informing people about the development work done.”
SAD’S coalition partner BJP has run a social media cell for the last three months. “We have appointed more than 30 social media in-charge across the state. A team is spreading information about the party and its candidates,” said state BJP secretary Vineet Joshi.
The Congress’s social media exercise is being handled by a team in Prashant Kishor’s Indian Political Action Committee. “Other than the Facebook and Twitter accounts, more than 1,000 Whatsapp groups are being used to send information from the war room in Mohali to booth levels in the state,” said a senior IPAC member.
AAP has around 350 people engaged in the online campaign. “We are hopeful social media will play a similar role to that in the Delhi elections in 2014. We have fought three elections and know the importance of social media,” said Abhinav Budhiraja, who heads AAP Punjab’s social media cell. It is using Instagram apart from Facebook and Twitter.
Professor Pampa Mukherjee, chairperson in Panjab University’s department of political science, believes social media “as a platform” has become a “democratic space for expression for ideas”. “The urban-rural divide in Punjab is getting squeezed due to digitisation. Now the emphasis of each political party is on the youth and this time it is expected that we will see social media play an important role in changing the political discourse,” said Mukherjee.
“... The past few elections have shown [social media] can swing at least some crucial votes here or there,” said Dr Sucharita Sengupta of the political science department in Jamia Millia Islamia. “If it is battle of perception in this election... then I would say social media would have a very important role, if not a larger role, but definitely a crucial role,” she said. SAMAJWADI PARTY leaders have begun to admit that the turmoil within, unless settled, will end up helping the BJP in Uttar Pradesh. The premise is that the Muslim votes will split among the BSP, the SP’S two factions and the Congress, while Asaduddin Owaisi’s MIM too is targeting that vote-bank in a number of assembly seats.
Besides, the SP leaders said, their core Yadav vote bank too faces the prospect of division between the Mulayam and Akhilesh Yadav groups. Here, too, the BJP stands to gain, the SP leaders said. The BJP has been making efforts to woo non-yadav backward voters. In Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally in Lucknow last week, the BJP ensured all its prominent OBC faces were among the senior leaders present on stage.
Dr Zahid Khan, veteran SP leader since its founding and now a state executive member from Bareilly, said Muslims in western UP were worried and confused about “where to go”. Last weekend, Khan had called a meeting of party members in Bithri Chairnpur village in Bareilly. “People asked me, ‘This meeting is from which side, Mulayam’s or Akhilesh’s?’ If Muslim votes aren’t polarised towards a single party, they will split among the BSP, the Congress and the the SP’S factions, benefiting the BJP,” Khan told The Indian Express.
Mushtaq Kazmi, another SP veteran in the state executive, and who like Khan has worked with Mulayam for decades, said if the party enters the elections divided then the SP’S Muslim voters will go either towards the BSP or any party they feel is in a position to defeat communal forces. This drift of votes away from the SP will benefit the BJP, he said. Muslims “like Akhilesh because he has worked without being biased towards any caste or religion”, Kazmi said, “but that won’t be of much help if the party remains divided”.
SP state secretary Ashok Patel, of Fatehpur district, said if the party breaks up and the Election Commission freezes its symbol, it will split votes of the backward groups with non-yadav voters possibly moving towards the BJP. He noted, however, that the anointment of MLA Naresh Uttam as state SP president will help Akhilesh win non-yadav votes, countering the BJP’S appointment of Keshav Prasad Maurya as state president and induction of Apna Dal MP Anurpriya Patel in the cabinet.
“The entire game for the SP and the BSP will depend on Muslims votes,” Ashok Patel said. “If Muslims support the BSP, that party will be the main contender against the BJP. If Muslims support the SP, then the ruling party will give a strong challenge to the BJP with the additional support of the backward communities.”
Dara Singh Chauhan, the BJP’S OBC Morcha national president, predicted a gain in terms of both Yadav and non-yadav votes. “Yadav voters upset with the SP family feud will support the BJP. Non-yadav OBC voters are already with the BJP as they have faith the in leadership of PM Modi. Also,” he added, “the BJP do not seek for benefit from an internal feud in any party or family.”