Bhajans to Bollywood: Reels take over online Lok Sabha poll campaigns
According to the data released by the Election Commission of India, 18.5 million registered voters are aged 18 and 19. (HT photo)
A 30-second montage of video clips flash past. They show Congress leader Rahul Gandhi engaging with a diverse set of people during a string of campaign rallies. He interacts with farmers, children, elderly women and gig workers, and walks down the road with a dog at one point. This flurry of visuals is embellished with the occasional glittering heart animation that splashes across the screen and is set to the wildly popular Blue song “One Love”, a reference to the party’s “Mohabbat Ki Dukaan (shop of love)” poll message.
The reel – which reached 400,000 people and was shared more than 30,000 times – is part of an ever-expanding field of short videos that have flooded social media and dominated much of the online discourse in the ongoing general elections.
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Political groups have relied heavily on these short videos ever since TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts captured the Indian imagination during the pandemic. And the ongoing general elections will be the first national polls where they have been used to engage with voters, especially younger age-groups who rely largely on the social media for their political content.
The choice of music used in the videos, though, is often make-or-break and serves to underscore ideological differences between political parties.
According to the data released by the Election Commission of India, 18.5 million registered voters are in the age group of 18 and 19. These reels get views ranging from a few thousand to even lakhs and usually perform better than the reels with no trending song as its background music.
Shivam Shankar Singh, author of How to Win an Indian Election commenting on the social media phenomena said,”The parties are experimenting with reels and videos because this medium was not really available in 2019, so they are trying to see what works with the younger generations and what does not. They might not want to consume lengthy documents such as manifestos so that is where the reels work and helps viewers know what does the party stand for in say 30 seconds.”
The Congress, for instance, relies on a string of boy bands from the 90s like British band Blueand has also used its video messaging to reinforce its focus on social welfare and justice, including “Kabhi Kabhi Aditi” from the film Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, “Chhoti Si Asha” from Roja and “Tu Jo Mila” from Bajrangi Bhaijaan.
The party has also used a litany of upbeat songs from Hindi films – “Shaan Na Teri Kam Hone Denge Watan” from Satyamev Jayate 2, for instance, accompanies visuals of Sonia Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge as Rahul Gandhi files his nomination the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat.
On the flip side, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) largely relies on visuals of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with the backing tracks most often Ram Bhajans and songs such as “Jai Shri Ram” from Adipurush.
But, a majority of the BJP’s eschew music entirely, in favour of Modi’s speeches or voiceovers.
The party has also gone the extra step in a bid to appeal to younger voters with its reels. For instance, in a post made by the party’s “BJP4INDIA” Instagram page in April, a day before the first phase of polling, it featured a rap song titled “Vote for the GOAT”, referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the “greatest of all time”.
“He be hustling 24/7 for 2047, yo” and “Vote for the GOAT, Modi ko jaayega apna first vote,” go some parts of the song. The song also rephrases terms like “Modi ki guarantee” to “Guarantee hai pakki, FYI” and communicates economic growth as “Economy ko kiya hai lit” for Gen-Z understanding. Words like “swag” and “roast” are used, and PM Modi is referred to as the “Boss.”
Kunal Purohit, author of the book “H-Pop: The Secretive World of Hindutva Pop Stars”, argues that the BJP has, in particular, used songs to effectively shape its campaign.
“We have had a rich history of music and songs being used to further political campaigns. On major issues, or even peripheral ones, songs have actually played a very big role in the BJP’s campaigns.”
“Take for instance ‘Jo Ram ko Laaye hai Hum unko laayenge’ by Kanhaiya Mittal. It was not a song meant for these elections at all, but for the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly polls. Yogi Adityanath is actively using and repackaging that song in the campaign,” said Purohit.
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