Assembly election: Uttarakhand battle shifts to social media war rooms

Unlike in the past, the 2022 assembly election in Uttarakhand is being primarily fought from the social media war rooms of the three main political players: the ruling BJP, Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party.

It looks like an advantage to the BJP as the party had taken to the digital means of campaigning early, from the first lockdown in 2020 itself.

The political parties also badly depend on different social media platforms because of the Election Commission-imposed ban on political rallies, dharnas and demonstrations till January 15 in view of rising Covid cases.

The three parties have their own social media departments, right from the booth level to the state level.

"We started strengthening our social media department in the state soon after the announcement of the lockdown in March 2020," a BJP insider said. According to him, the party has social media teams at 11,500 booths.

The Congress, too, has formed its social media teams across the state. "In every assembly seat, about 15 members of our social media teams are active. Besides, we also work at the district level. We have divided the state into 26 districts," said Amarjeet Singh, the party's social media coordinator. According to him, a war room, which has about 25 members currently, is also functional in Dehradun.