“I hadn’t thought of my voter ID until he brought it up,” says Jose, an undergraduate student of social work at Rajagiri College of Social Sciences, which plans to have a voter registration desk for students. Jose says most of her classmates do not have election ID cards.
Jose intends to register soon but is undecided on which party to vote for in the 2024 general elections. There is still time, but she says a candidate’s stand on issues plaguing villages such as lack of sanitation will weigh on her decision. “If I want to understand an issue, I look up videos explaining it on YouTube,” says Jose. The digital media is her window to social and political issues, along with local news and conversations with her peers and family.
Meanwhile, in Gurgaon, Alice Tobias, 21, is gearing up to exercise her voting rights in the general election, but she says, “I don’t see much enthusiasm among my peers, given how close the polls are.” The philosophy student in Delhi’s Hansraj College depends on the Instagram handles of news portals for updates and analyses.
In Chennai, 19-year-old Prathmesh Sawant depends on YouTubers like Dhruv Rathee (14 million subscribers) and Mohak Mangal’s Soch (2.84 million subscribers) for political updates. “There is an atmosphere of polarisation that I don’t like,” says Sawant, an engineering student at SRM Institute of Science and Technology, expressing his desire to vote for a party that can bring more peace and “less unrest”.
Jose, Tobias and Sawant are part of a huge cohort who will cast their vote for the first time in the 2024 election. In the world’s largest democracy and most populous country, the choice of first-time and young voters can be crucial. In 2019, 84 million voters were added to the electoral rolls, with about 15 million being 18- and 19-year-olds. Political parties often target first-time voters as they are by and large believed to be free from established party affiliations and uninfluenced by incumbency weariness.How will political parties target these digital natives in 2024? In ET’s conversations with politicians and election strategists, they have all underlined the importance of digital media in courting these voters.They note that, unlike in 2019, Facebook will assume a less prominent role in 2024, as party accounts are experiencing a fall in organic engagement on the platform. Instagram and WhatsApp will instead play a critical role in spreading the message of political parties. Parties will also tap influencers across categories to reach the debutant electorate.
In rural areas, youth engagement will be bolstered through local content, door-to-door outreach programmes and even college and local events. Organising sports tournaments and promising sports and fitness facilities will be part of the strategy to draw young electorate in rural areas.
Tejasvi Surya, MP of Bengaluru South and president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, BJP’s youth wing, says in an emailed response that the party plans to increase outreach through online platforms like podcasts, webinars, blogs and e-magazines to draw first-time voters. “BJP recognises that young people are heavily engaged with digital media, and it plans to leverage that to effectively communicate its message and connect with first-time voters,” he adds.
Ilhana Katoch, 23, an assistant curator at an art gallery in Noida, says she will check the educational background and criminal cases of candidates before deciding whom to vote for in 2024.
“Who I vote for will depend on what they represent and if that aligns with what I believe in,” she says. Sumit Bhagasara, chairman of the Rajasthan Congress’s social media cell, says a clean track record and the fresh face of a candidate can help in attracting voters.
Dhawal Vasavada, cofounder of political consulting firm PoliticalEdge, which has worked with BJP, Congress, NCP, AIADMK and Shiv Sena, among others, on election strategy, says, “Messaging in urban areas will be around icons like cricketers and superstars, while messaging in rural areas will be more issue-based. In all party manifestos now, there is a specific section addressing issues concerning the youth like unemployment. Parties are also appointing young leaders to reach out to them.”
Sudhanshu Kaushik, founder of Young India Foundation (YIF), says BJP has been on a continuous outreach programme. The very launch of PM Narendra Modi’s book Exam Warriors in 2018 was meant to attract a demographic that will become firsttime voters in 2024, he says.
“BJP will have to work harder for the vote of the youth rather than of firsttime voters. Since 25-30-year-olds have grown up with a BJP-ruled government, there might be some incumbency in their minds. A first-time voter doesn’t have an incumbency attitude. The initiatives and large-scale events organised by BJP such as hosting an event on G20 for young people are meant to attract them,” says Kaushik
HOW TO INFLUENCE THE YOUTH
Both BJP and Congress have extensively utilised social media influencers to spread their messages since the beginning of 2023. During his Bharat Jodo Yatra, Rahul Gandhi gave exclusive interviews to YouTubers. A July report by News Laundry says BJP had meet-ups with influencers in at least 18 states as part of its initiative to engage with young voters during the ‘Nine Years of Modi’ campaign and in the run-up to the 2024 polls.
“Influencers are in direct competition with the traditional media and operate like beat reporters. They receive invitations to attend press conferences and rallies hosted by political parties, with the expectation that they will share information with their audience,” says Vasavada.
Kaushik of YIF agrees. He says parties now leverage digital influencers and trends like memes and songs to subtly influence youth voters. “Political parties have recognised that there is less appeal in reaching out directly. They are instead shifting the conversation to where they want it to go without making it obvious that they are controlling that narrative. Youth voters like to feel that they are making autonomous decisions, without being influenced by a party.” 2024 might also see social media influencers joining political parties and contesting elections, says Kaushik.
Himani Chowdhary, a content creator on personal finance with over 700,000 followers on Instagram, has been an unlikely guest at multiple gatherings by political parties this year. She says things will only get “more hectic” for influencers as the 2024 election approaches. Chowdhary was part of a recent interaction that Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal held with content creators. She says they were invited as representatives of their follower base and were asked about their followers’ concerns on different issues. “After attending a few of these events, now I know if it’s a political rally where they expect us to post videos and content, or if is to listen to us,” says Chowdhary.
GOING HYPER LOCAL
Devang Dave, who oversees BJP’s election management in Maharashtra, says the party’s extensive online presence involves “much more than the 500” Instagram handles for the state. Dave says the party’s war room will streamline communication and engagement efforts at the grassroots level across all constituencies in the state.
BJP has held various meetings with influencers in Maharashtra. “In the coming days, too, we will be initiating neutral meetings with influencers. We will acquaint them with our policies. We also hope they narrate their experience on how things have changed since 2014,” says Dave.
WhatsApp will take centrestage in the upcoming election. Dave says his party is in the “micro planning” stage. For instance, instead of just sending messages from its business handle on WhatsApp, BJP has strategically placed volunteers within housing society groups. He says the party intends to have a consistent presence in discussions and to have individuals put across its views.
Bhagasara of Rajasthan Congress says directives of the party’s central social media cell include a more effective utilisation of WhatsApp to disseminate its messages. Reflecting on insights gained from the state election in Rajasthan, Bhagasara highlights the need for additional resources and an early commencement of campaign.
An assessment of the 2019 polls by Lokniti, a research programme of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), found that social media was not a determining factor in swaying voters aged 18-25 years in BJP’s favour. “It was not social media, welfare schemes, or news media that locked young voters. The biggest factor was the belief in Modi’s leadership,” says Vibha Attri, a research associate at CSDS.
However, no party is ready to bank on offline charisma and outreach. Jyoti Mishra, a research associate at Lokniti, says that compared with 2019, there is now a more aggressive utilisation of platforms such as YouTube and OTT services like JioCinema for political advertising, aimed at reaching young individuals who typically do not follow traditional media outlets like print or tune into television broadcasts. The online war is on.
