TikTok connected Modi to young voters

Nearly 15 million young “digital natives”, most of whom cast their votes for the first time, chose to vote for Narendra Modi as India’s next prime minister. Chinese short video-sharing app TikTok played a great role in creating a “Modi wave” among them.

While seasoned members of the BJP were busy charting out strategies and organising rallies, the younger, tech-savvy karyakartas took charge of expanding Modi’s digital presence across platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter - and TikTok.

TikTok, which claims to have over 120 million monthly active users in India, played a crucial part in circulating dialogues, speeches and candid reactions from Modi on smartphones across the length and breadth of the country.

After Modi prefixed the word “Chowkidar” (watchman) before his name on Twitter, TikTokers went berserk.

In addition to Hindi, several TikTok videos were shared in other regional languages including Bhojpuri, Rajasthani, Gujarati and Bengali.

In an interview with Bollywood star Akshay Kumar, Modi said he enjoys memes on the Internet. The clip became a sensational TikTok topic that floated on social media platforms for quite a while.