It is the baap of all state elections and the ruling BJP does not want to leave anything to chance. From the BJP's out-of-bounds war room in Lucknow, a mega social media outreach and ground-level campaign is being rolled out to reach voters ahead of the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls 2022, party functionaries told News18.

This involves rolling out BJP video vans early in each assembly constituency to cover villages from November 11 to 22. The vans will display 30-minute-long films on the achievements of the Yogi Adityanath government. Cartoons and animation videos have also made a strong entry in the social media messaging of the party on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with sharp attacks on its political opponents.

Catchy songs will sing Adityanath’s tunes, to counter the strength of the Samajwadi Party in the state, and to make them a rage on YouTube. At least 100 'digitally-prepared posters' are being put in each constituency in the coming days with pictures of six leaders — PM Narendra Modi, UP CM Yogi Adityanath, party chief JP Nadda, state president Swatantra Dev Singh and the two Deputy CMs of the state.

The bed rock of the campaign remains the new membership drive to induct 1.5 crore more members into the party, in addition to the 2.5 crore members BJP already has in UP. Kits have been dispatched to all assembly seats to induct members and a missed call campaign for inducting voters is also in full swing, with a dedicated call centre and IVRS system and cross-checking with corresponding lists of new members from districts to ensure “no fake new members” are made.

The party already has a widespread WhatsApp network in the state with each of the 1.68 lakh booths having their own WhatsApp groups. Separate groups have also been created with influential groups like lawyers, teachers and other professionals to disseminate the party’s message. Plus on each booth, a ‘Tridev set-up’ has been enforced in which the Booth President, Booth In-charge and Booth General Secretary will have “collective responsibility” to attract voters to BJP.

One source in the party said a ‘social media wing’, apart from the ‘IT Wing’ in UP BJP is now dedicatedly looking at creating social media content for the party and pushing it on all social media platforms. A ‘Media Watch and Analysis Unit’ meanwhile monitors all media coverage of BJP as well as keeps a hawk eye on other parties to provide real-time information to BJP leaders on an hourly basis.

The thought that counts

“We have enough content on the government’s performance for our campaigns but it is also an earnest effort to immediately counter any falsehood or propaganda against the Yogi government by our political opponents. The social media structure of the party in UP has been set up on the lines of the party structure in a methodological manner,” a leader of the state BJP told News18. He said the party was getting “very high engagement” on all social media platforms about the latest social media campaign launched by BJP, that reflected people interest.

Another leader said BJP had an inherent advantage of the wide-following handles of their top national leaders, the BJP and the state leaders sharing content which resulted in far more engagement than the Samajwadi Party which had just its own handle and that of Akhilesh Yadav. The idea also is to make the social media messaging “engaging and attractive” through use of cartoons and animation and specialists have been hired, like video editors and voice-over artists, with the production being done in-house by the BJP in UP. “Cartoons offer an avenue for a forceful but an easy critique. It has worked well, as per the feedback,” a second party leader said.

Samajwadi Party had an edge till lately with popular songs on Akhilesh Yadav that have been produced rather professionally. Some of them like ‘Akhilesh Aa Rahen Hain’ and ‘Janta Pukarti Hai Akhilesh Aaiye’ are played by the party at all events of the party. The BJP in UP has now caught up with this, with party members like popular singer Dinesh Niruha coming out with a popular song on Adityanath and MP Ravi Kishen is said to be also working on one such song. “Songs on Yogi have dominated YouTube and become very popular - especially the song ‘Yogi Sabse Bade Ladaiya (Yogi, the big fighter),” a leader said.

Getting the trends going

BJP in UP is also focussing a lot on trending topics on social media, like the recent Jinnah controversy or its campaign lines like ‘Aap Bhule Too Nahin’ (Have you forgotten) campaign to highlight ‘misrule’ of the SP and BSP government, the BJP’s campaign like of ‘Soch Imaandar, Kaam Damdar’ (Honest thinking, solid work) and ‘Farq Saaf Hai’ (The difference is clear) to show the detailed comparison of the development work between the SP, BSP and the Yogi governments. “We are comparing 15 years of SP-BSP rule with five years of the BJP government to show how we have worked far more,” a leader said.

From Taliban to Jinnah to Article 370 and Ram Temple, the BJP's social media campaign in UP is leaving no stone unturned to grab eyeballs.