India is a democratic country. People choose their representatives and elect them, who then govern the nation on their behalf. Governments are of the people, by the people, and for the people. This is the reason why election plays a major role in India. During the election, Indian politics becomes a marketing playground.
To understand how this happens, let us first understand how does the election take place.
Election Process in India
An election is a process of choosing someone by voting them to be your political leader in government. To win an election, political parties have to persuade people to support them. Each party needs to identify its plan of action and make the public understand its policies.
They prepare a list of tasks that they promise to carry out if that particular party is elected. This is known as a portfolio. Citizens make their choice in secret through a ballot paper and put it into a ballot box that is closed until all the votes get cast and voting is closed. The party that gets the majority vote is elected and their government form.
Types of Election in India
In India there are mainly 4 types of election:
Lok Sabha (Lower House/ House of People)- In this election people eligible to vote (18+) chooses 543 members of Lok Sabha by voting them directly. The party that wins 272 seats forms their government and the leader of the party becomes prime minister for the tenure of 5 years.
Rajya Sabha (Upper House)- The members of Rajya Sabha are not directly elected by citizens of India rather they are elected by winning members of Lok Sabha for the tenure of six years but one-third of members retire every year.
State Legislative Assembly- Members of the State Legislative Assembly are elected by particular constituencies. The strength of assembly depends upon the population of the state. The tenure of members is five years or until the body is dissolved by the governor.
Local Government- Local government mainly includes Corporations, Municipalities, Panchayats, and Samitis elected by the population of that particular area.
Marketing Strategy during Election
All the political parties use strategies during the election to encourage maximum voters to vote for them. Mostly, they use social media because traditional communication is governed by the election commission of India. Initially, they used a static webpage to promote their goals and promises. But when the population started using social media, they chose this platform for campaigning.
Social media is playing an entirely new role in Indian politics and democracy. Today, politicians found a new way of reaching out to the younger generation. In 2009, for the first time, the Indian election started online voter registration and transparency campaigning. PM Narendra Modi with his team understood the power and potential of social media and the opportunities offered by them.
The credit for initiating political advertisement goes to BJP in India. BJP, one of the popular political parties, has a humongous presence on social media. They started the first campaign in India known as “India Shining” on TV. This method was effective on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc., and led to a successful campaign in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. It also paved the way for future campaigns of other political parties
AAP (Aam Aadmi Party) also uses these technologically advanced social platforms to approach the people and also accept donations through these channels. The combination of traditional media with new technology helps in reaching the masses easily.
Social media is the quickest way of communicating things. Political aspirants create an account with Twitter or any other social media handle and attract followers who follow their every step very keenly.
In the rural areas, political parties have adopted strategies like the use of posters, mobile vans with public address systems, and holding meetings. Another strategy is through mobiles because the current generation widely uses smartphones. These smartphones have made access to information very convenient.
Future of Political Marketing in India
Primarily the future of this form of marketing lies on the internet (social media). In the near future, everything is going to be digitalized and political marketing might also have a new twist with the emergence of the metaverse and other technologies.
This however will not come without risk. One of the major challenges will be that any false information can be circulated easily and can influence the public very easily.
Written by- Radhika Jhunjhunwala
Edited by- Priyanshi Deolal
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