Virtual Campaigning....

With election in around the corner our hard working, greatly devoted politicians are all ready to rock the ballot box with new campaign ideas in their stores! Few weeks ago I got the opportunity to experience one of the latest ideas of election campaign designed by Narendra Modi -Gujarat: the power house, distributed in free of cost with one of the leading English magazines of the nation, India Today. Those days were gone when these grey headed folks used to come down to the streets with a huge mike & never ending speeches including bunch of promises which incited series of forged hopes among us. In this cyber age we can reach the candidates we like with one click of the mouse…politicians are truly getting net savvy!

There was a time when youth didn’t have even the slightest interest in politics & election …but with the materialization of the consent named ‘Media’, we the young generation are gaining interest in the political system of the nation at large. We are bombarded with awareness building messages from electronics media, one of the successful of them is the Tata Tea advertisement which says, ‘Jaago Re’…even the Mtv which is considered as the youth icon channel is also promoting ‘Jaago Re’ in their show ‘Wats Up Youngistan! Why they are paying such magnitude on this issue?? Is it only because the youth need to be aware about the election procedure? Or there is other side of the story as well?

Considering the new trends in election campaign that is gaining popularity now days, it is discernible that politicians are now hankering for the youth vote bank. In the past it was almost impossible for the young generation even to know the profile about the candidates in detail…they were unaware about the party policies & ideologies. As a result very few of them sought to participate in the election process. But with more coalition Government... with more regional parties burgeoning from different states, our politicians have realized the necessity to incorporate youth in the election to secure vote banks.

Being in a country with such a complex system structure, every Indian should have enough knowledge about elections & every political party…but our Govt.’s sole concern definitely isn’t to increase only our awareness!! Since India's current demographic profile is heavily loaded in the favor of youth, more than 50 per cent of India's population is below the age of 25, politicians have realized the importance of youth participation to ensure sheer success.

As a result, politicians like Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi, P Chidambaram & many more have launched their websites which include upcoming policies & programs of their parties, their vision & goals. Recently a news on Headlines Today shows that people from around the world are visiting these websites in large numbers…& websites of these leaders are giving tough competitions to Celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan or Amir Khan!!

But this is yet to see how far all these efforts could ensure their vote banks in reality…