Patna, Oct. 4: Even in backward Bihar, politicians are making full use of technology to reach out to the people in innovative ways.
Lalu Prasad today released a video on www.dubsmash.com mocking Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the NDA's star campaigner in the state, reminding him of his "achchhe din" promises made last year. It was a first for the state's electoral scene, and, we dare say, a change from the usual mudslinging. For the uninitiated, Dubsmash is a cellphone app that allows users to lip sync over audio clips. Users can upload their own audio, and can add colour filters and text animation to their recordings.
While Lalu may have scored a point with his Dubsmash mocking of the Prime Minister's promises, he is far from the first to harness the power of technology and social media. BJP honchos Sushil Kumar Modi and Giriraj Singh had countered Lalu's controversial statement on beef-eating on Saturday via Twitter.
While political heavyweights such as Lalu, Sushil and Nitish Kumar among others use social media extensively to keep the cyber world posted about their commitments, works and plans, other candidates in the poll fray too depend heavily on the web to reach out to voters.
BJP candidates in Patna, including Nand Kishore Yadav, Arun Kumar Sinha and Nitin Navin, write frequent posts on Facebook as well as Twitter to communicate with netizens.
Sitting MLA and candidate from Patna Sahib Nand Kishore makes several posts everyday on his accounts on Facebook and Twitter. A total of 3,52,057 people have liked the official Facebook page of Nand Kishore created in December 2012, while his Twitter handle has 3,324 followers.
"Social networking websites allow us to reach out to maximum number of people at a time. Moreover, they provide a platform for getting feedback from people when they respond to our posts," said Nand Kishore.
Those who don't have the time to manage their accounts, thanks to the gruelling campaign schedule, have hired professionals. For instance, the Facebook and Twitter accounts of most big leaders, including Nitish Kumar and Sushil Modi, are handled by professionals.
The BJP IT cell in the war room at its Beer Chand Patel Marg office and another at Fraser Road, looked after by MP R.K. Sinha's son, Rituraj, caters to a number of candidates in the poll fray, who are new to the web world.
Sources claimed that Lalu's son Tejaswi manages most posts made on his father's Facebook and Twitter accounts. Tejaswi's older brother, Tej Pratap, who is contesting from Mahua constituency in Vaishali, has hired a team of young professionals who work from a war room in Danapur.
However, a few other candidates such as Aquil Haider from the Congress are still not clued into social media. "My supporters have recently opened an account on one of the social media websites - either Facebook or Twitter. I don't remember clearly," said Haider, who is contesting from the Kumhrar constituency.
Web experts asserted that social media was a powerful tool in the hands of candidates for effective electioneering. "Most youngsters and working professionals in the age group of 18-35 years log onto either Facebook or Twitter twice or thrice a day. This provides a direct medium for the candidates to interact with the voters," said Jai Vardhan, an e-commerce expert working in Noida.
Non-resident Biharis also keep themselves abreast with the election updates through social media. "The Assembly elections are the most talked-about issue on both Facebook and Twitter," said Gautam Kumar Singh, a resident of New Patliputra who is settled in Birmingham, UK.
Earlier this year, when a Twitter user sent a Dubsmash video of a line from a speech by the Prime Minister during the 2014 Lok Sabha election campaign, Modi was amused. He had tweeted, "Oh! hahaha" Don't hold your breath for his response to Lalu's dubsmashing, though.
