As Rajasthan State elections are just around the corner, social media platforms have become sources of information dissemination and political campaigning. The purpose of this study is to discern the kind of information posted by accounts affiliated with specific political parties. A total of twenty accounts were monitored, 10 from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and 10 from Congress. These accounts included the handles of party leaders, Opposition party members, MLAs, party workers, State official accounts, and party supporters. A majority of the posts recorded were from X, formerly known as Twitter, followed by Facebook.
All the posts were categorised as positive, negative, neutral, and mixed. Posts were categorised as positive if they were about the accomplishment of the party. Negative posts included those criticising the other party for their shortcomings and neutral posts were general updates about visits and greetings. The mixed category included posts which were simultaneously commending the party and attacking the other party (Table 1).
Active social media prescence
Out of the 1,047 posts recorded, 510 were from the BJP, and 537 were from Congress. Both parties mostly posted photos and videos, with 93% of the posts being visual-based. However, it was observed that the BJP had a more robust social media team as they have posted multiple videos tailored towards their campaign in Rajasthan.
Out of the ten BJP accounts observed, the most active was the party’s State account, @BJP4Rajasthan on X. The account was the source of 41% of the total BJP posts recorded. Upon further analysis, it was found that 21% of the account’s posts were positive, 48% were negative, and 25% were neutral. In comparison, the Congress party’s State account, @INCRajasthan on X, was the source of 21% of total Congress posts recorded. Nearly 23% of the posts from the account were positive, 21% were negative, and 52% were neutral.
For Congress, the most active accounts were of the party workers, as 32% of the total recorded posts were from such accounts; 23% of posts from party workers were positive, 43% were negative, and 19% per cent were neutral. Comparatively, only 21% of the BJP’s total recorded posts were from its party workers; 11% of the posts from such accounts were positive, 40% were negative, and 43% were neutral.
What are they posting on?
The top categories of Congress’s positive posts were about schemes and decisions, predicting poll results, public speeches and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. The Congress mainly posted about the accomplishments of the Cheeranjivi Yojana, the Old Pension Scheme, the blood bank initiative, and providing free electricity up to 100 units (Table 2).
Based on these accomplishments, Congress has appealed for votes under the slogan ‘Kaam kiya dil se, Congress firse.’ (we have worked from our heart, vote congress again).
The negative posts by Congress accounts were mainly about the BJP as a whole, their schemes and decisions, exposing fake news, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi (Table 3).
Initially, Congress had criticised the BJP for spreading hate speech and false propaganda. However, as of late, such tweets are generally directed towards the internal divide within the BJP and the lack of a strong CM candidate.
As for the BJP, the top three categories for positive posts were about the Prime Minister, schemes and decisions, updates, and party structure (Table 4).
The negative posts were mainly about governance, law and order, and corruption. BJP’s criticisms have mainly centred around law and order in the State (Table 5).
A majority of these concerns are related to women’s safety and atrocities against Dalits. Congress’s posts on the issue are a mere 1%. However, it is imperative to note that most of the comments under BJP’s negative posts about law and order issues in Rajasthan are usually about BJP’s silence on Manipur and the atrocities against women in Uttar Pradesh.
Another concern taken up by the BJP in criticism of Congress has been the rampant corruption in the State, as there have been several raids including but not limited to the residence of Govind Singh Dostara, Ashok Gehlot’s son. These allegations have also been made in the form of newspaper clippings, videos, and caricatures.
The religious angle
One of the recent trends observed after the announcement of election dates was an increase in religious posts, majorly due to Navratri. Out of the total religious posts recorded, 62% per cent were from the BJP, and 38% were from Congress.
Only 18% of the total religious posts were negative; the rest were navratri greetings. Out of the total negative religious posts, 70% were from BJP, and 30% were from Congress. The negative religious posts from BJP have attacked Congress for failing to protect ‘Hindu sentiments’ within the State as priests have been attacked and Section 144 had been imposed within the State multiple times during Hindu festivals. Only a mere 3% of the total posts recorded were about temple visits, of which 63% were by BJP accounts and 37% were by Congress accounts.
A major recent trend observed in Congress’s campaign was the increased focus on the Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project, as it has become one of the main issues taken up by Congress to undermine BJP’s presence in the State; 8% of Congress’s total posts have been about the issue. Various Congress’s public speeches centred around the same, including the addresses given by Priyanka Gandhi and Malllikarjun Kharge.
Of the total posts recorded by the BJP, 6% were about Mr. Modi, despite it being State elections. This was due to the lack of a strong CM candidate from the party and the sidelining of popular candidates such as Vasundhara Raje. Thus, most posts appealing for votes have been in the name of PM Modi. In comparison, 5% of the total posts from Congress were about Ashok Gehlot, and only 1% were about Rahul Gandhi.
As elections are approaching soon, these trends and observations may be subject to change. These findings provide a preliminary overview of how political parties use social media platforms as a means of communication and campaign tool in the run-up to elections.
Sanjay Kumar is a Professor at CSDS, Aditi Singh teaches at Jindal University, Kaushiki Singh and Avika Singh are short-term researchers with Lokniti-/CSDS
