Ahead of the Delhi Assembly Elections, Indian political parties have revved up their social media efforts to propagate their ideology, canvass online support, mobilise public opinion and discredit rival parties. With elections just days away, political parties are leaving no stone unturned in luring potential voters. Aggressive social media campaigns are commissioned to influence and shape voter psyche.
The incumbent Aam Aadmi Party has presided over one of the most cringe-worthy political campaigns of all times. Since the party had no significant achievement to its name in the last 5 years, it has resorted to sharing Whatsappworthy spoofs and memes to take a sly dig on their opponents. As the election dates are approaching, the gradual crescendo of Aam Aadmi Party’s stupidity is reaching newer heights.
Recently the official Twitter handle of AAP shared a spoof of an instance from popular Bollywood movie Taare Zameen Par where Aamir Khan has an animated conversation with protagonist Ishaan’s family. In the parody version, Aamir Khan is seen criticising BJP for the lack of leadership and deriding BJP supporters for supporting BJP.
इस बार काम पर वोट देना! pic.twitter.com/Bhc7CsGL3Q
— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) January 21, 2020
AAP talks about water being made available free despite the fact that Delhi water continues to remain toxic.
Earlier, AAP had appropriated a popular advertisement of cement brand to assert Kejriwal’s resilience. The altered version shared by AAP shows an overbearing government officer as Amit Shah who is trying to down a building that is branded as “KejriWall”. The spoof shows how the wall fails to collapse despite repeatedly hit by an outsize metal sphere labelled as fake cases and CBI inquiry.
Why did you chop out the last part where everybody ignores you (massive snub) and carries on with their daily affairs? pic.twitter.com/ATTF74SgwL
— Vasudha (@WordsSlay) January 8, 2020
However, as this social media user pointed out, they cleverly skipped the part where towards the end everyone ignored ‘the wall’.
In another spoof from the movie Baahubali, the antagonist, Bhalal Dev and his father are seen distraught to see Arvind Kejriwal emerge as the first choice for voters in Delhi.
Dilli Ka Baahubali#WalkWithAK pic.twitter.com/R69PRXWoxS
— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) January 20, 2020
AAP received a lot of flak for sharing a meme from Baazigar movie where it showed Shah Rukh Khan as Kejriwal, Kajol as Delhi and a police officer eyeing Kajol as BJP’s Manoj Tiwari.
All the best Sir @ManojTiwariMP pic.twitter.com/C9oTfInf7u
— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) January 12, 2020
Several Twitter users pointed out the amateurish attempt made by AAP to take a jibe at BJP. They highlighted how in the climax Shah Rukh Khan dies while the police officer watches over.
If we go by your meme, this is going to happen in the end : pic.twitter.com/pRYMn1ryxR
— THE SKIN DOCTOR (@theskindoctor13) January 12, 2020
Btw, SRK dies in the movie
— Somrita Ghosh (@Somrita_Ghosh) January 12, 2020
The social media campaign by AAP exhibits that the party despite being at the helm of affairs in Delhi for the last 5 years has no credible achievement to talk about and is heavily relying on the cheap social media antics to garner support from the masses. The party has no vision for Delhi for the next 5 years, instead, it has sought solace in mocking the opponents and painting its chief Kejriwal as a victim to winkle brownie points from his perpetual victimhood.
Congress, on the other hand, is trying desperately to gain relevance in the Delhi political space which is largely viewed as an electoral duel between the AAP and the BJP. The official Congress Twitter handle a short time ago shared a campaign slogan exhorting people to reclaim “Congress Wali Delhi”. In the literary composition, Congress asserted that all the development that Delhi had seen till date had happened under Congress regimes.
However, while Congress exaggerates its contribution in building Delhi, there is one instance in the campaign song where Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee-led anti-CAA protest from Kolkata is passed off as a one that was carried out by Congress in Delhi.
दिल्ली को हमने बनाया,
दुनिया में इसको नाम दिलाया।
अब बुरा हुआ है इसका हाल,
कांग्रेस संग बनाएं इसे खुशहाल।।#CongressWaliDelhi pic.twitter.com/S46jNsiExZ— Congress (@INCIndia) January 17, 2020
The fact that Congress had to use an image of Mamata Banerjee-led protest to claim as its own indicates the party’s inability to mobilise people into supporting its cause. It’s no wonder then that, much like everywhere else, the party is staring at a bottomless pit of irrelevance in the upcoming Delhi assembly elections.
BJP’s Delhi unit, too, has resorted to juvenile ad campaign considering the last time Delhi had a BJP chief minister was back in 1998 when former External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj took in the reins from BJP’s Sahab Singh Verma mid-term. The BJP has also taken to meme war in these elections and answering fire with fire.
Inspired by… https://t.co/UBiJjE3rzc pic.twitter.com/8rsqGXm4Ph
— BJP Delhi (@BJP4Delhi) January 21, 2020
Art Artist pic.twitter.com/u1UIoUUA9s
— BJP Delhi (@BJP4Delhi) January 20, 2020
As we get closer to polling, one hopes that Delhi gets the government it deserves.
