No Role For Social Media In Andhra Pradesh Politics?

The youngest state in the country, Telangana went to elections recently and we got a clear winner. If we look at the election episode, one thing was evident, the use of social media. Social media was used as a big tool to cater to people and leave a strong impression on the voters.

The then-ruling BRS took social media usage to a whole new level. Social media influencers were roped in for the campaign and they danced for the election campaign song of the party. The campaign song got a lot of attention from the people.

The Congress party had not done anything less. The election campaign led by Sunil Kanugolu made the difference. The team not only came up with an impressive piece of work but also countered the social media game of the BRS. In the end, Congress had the upper hand and came to power in the state.

Andhra Pradesh is slated to go to elections in a few months. With this, people are showing interest in seeing what impact social media can have in the state as the elections as fast approaching. However political experts say that the picture is quite different compared to Telangana.

They say that there is no impact of social media in Andhra Pradesh politics. They cite a few examples to back the arguments that social media has no game in state politics and it would not have any impact.

When there are elections around the corner, it is common for the firms to come up with surveys. But real surveys are not coming out and the fake surveys are not creating any impact as people are not interested in them. The social media influencers are not used by the parties as happened in Telangana. When there is no use for social media, influencers have no role to play.

The surveys are conducted only when the candidates are finalized. Surveys predict what would be the future of the candidates in these constituencies. However, the candidates for the seats are not finalized yet. It is known that TDP and Janasena joined hands for an alliance. But the seat-sharing issue has no clarity as of now.

No one can tell how many seats TDP will get and how many seats Janasena will be allocated. Once this is cleared, we might see the surveys getting out. As of now, there is no work for the surveys in the state.

Another reason behind no importance of social media in the state is that people involved in this are seeing no profit. The ruling YSRCP and opposition TDP are the major parties in the state and they are not showing any interest in focusing on social media.

TDP has social media in the name of iTDP. However, it is not showing any impact despite working hard. YCP also has a social media wing. However, it is unable to counter the trolls it is facing. This is the picture of social media in the state.