Parties face the heat of AAP's social media campaign

JALANDHAR: It is not political rallies or the rivals' allegations but Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) social media campaign with clinical perfection that hit the ruling SAD-BJP combine and Opposition Congress worst during the Lok Sabha elections held in Punjab on April 30.

Amid reports that AAP has got huge response among urban, rural and young voters, ruling Shiromani Akali Dal is now blaming it on their failure to tap the potential of social media during the campaigning. Sources in SAD revealed that top leadership has taken note of the extensive use of social media by the new political outfit and after the polls SAD has realized that it could not counter AAP on social media despite its expensive ad blitzkrieg. The ruling party is also consulting IT experts on how the issue of negative content generated by the sympathizers of the party can be addressed.

It seems that the young volunteers of AAP gave the established parties a run for their money and outdid the seasoned campaigners of SAD, BJP and Congress through the new mode. It was a 14-member group of AAP volunteers, aged between 18 and 25, which managed the content on social media.

While 24-year-old Himanshu Pathak, who is pursuing a company secretary course, headed the Punjab IT cell of AAP, those in the "gang of 14" were either students or young professionals. If Kanav Vats is trying to start his career after completing his computer engineering degree, Yasir Zahoor and Surbhi Mahindru are still students of BTech (computer engineering).

FB page of AAP Punjab became the major reason and source for the video of revenue minister Bikram Majithia's controversial distortion of a hymn of Guru Gobind Singh, which became a major embarrassment for SAD. The video went viral on social media and despite desperate attempts by SAD to stop the negative publicity the damage had already been done.

SAD secretary and spokesperson Daljit Singh Cheema said there was no denial that social media was an important tool now in spread of information but the issue of spreading canards or rumour mongering was an issue of concern. He said the issue needed to be addressed and deliberated upon.

However, Pathak said they were taking all responsibility for content on their FB page and no false or irresponsible content was disseminated from their page. "The only difference is that we had no big money to indulge in ad blitzkrieg but our young volunteers ensured that truth reached the maximum number of people through new-age media," he added.

"We managed to reach to most of the 40 lakh FB users of Punjab and in one day our content was being viewed by 10 to 20 lakh people," revealed Aman Aujlam, a young software professional, who was also in the "gang of 14" and played a crucial role in posting the content in Punjabi