A video of five policemen, who were working in an Uttar Pradesh prison, dancing and shouting “Jayant Chaudhary zindabad” appeared recently on social media with a comment that voters’ mood was changing in western UP. The vigilante who shared the video said the policemen were celebrating the “certain” victory of Rashtriya Lok Dal’s Jayant Chaudhary, who is fighting the assembly polls in alliance with the Samajwadi Party. Outraged BJP supporters demanded action against the policemen for “celebrating the defeat” of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
The Uttar Pradesh Police—known for its muscular policy, encouraged by the chief minister—has been proactive on complaints received through social media. Senior officers said the matter was being inquired into and the policemen had been asked to explain their actions. The sheepish constables clarified that “Jayant Chaudhary” was the nickname of a colleague who had been commended by President Ramnath Kovind, and the songs were sung to congratulate him. BJP supporters, however, are not convinced by the explanation.
Illustration: Job P.K.
There was an even bigger instance of confusion when Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole declared in a speech that he was so honest that he could “hit” Modi if the latter were to campaign against him. As the video went viral, BJP leaders accused Patole—who had rebelled against Modi and quit the BJP to join the Congress—of threatening the prime minister. Patole clarified that the Modi in reference was a notorious character from his constituency who was nicknamed thus. The BJP said Patole was trying to cover up his threat.
As there are restrictions on physical campaigning, political parties have found smarter ways to engage voters. After finding out that television channels and cable networks no longer give full live coverage to their speeches, leaders have arranged for huge screens to be set up in colonies and villages. Even the Congress, which was lagging behind in using new technology, compared with the BJP, arranged big screens and organised smartphone rallies for the Gandhi siblings.
Road shows are being camouflaged as door-to-door campaigns and later magnified into video shows. But the advertisement blitzkrieg over WhatsApp and Facebook, which had given the BJP a big advantage when smartphones were a novelty, has become less attractive as many users have learnt to distinguish between morphed and real videos. Political parties now employ smarter and quicker fact checkers to expose fake videos of their rivals.
Putting up dummy candidates with identical names is an old ploy which is still popular. Parties try to find and field independent candidates who have a name similar to that of their rival candidate. Even though symbols and photographs accompany candidates’ names on voting machines, simple folk sometimes end up voting for the ‘dummy’. When it was announced that both Adityanath and Akhilesh Yadav would be contesting assembly polls for the first time, there was a scramble to find lesser known Adityanaths and Akhileshs.
An interesting feature of the elections is that the more the conditions and technologies change, the more they remain the same in many respects.
sachi@theweek.in