Congress & Campaigns

After the digital campaign wave of 2014, the 2019 campaigns began from March with each party rolling out powerful campaigns against each other. Congress’ campaign is based entirely upon the unfulfilled promises of BJP. Congress believes that in 2014, the campaigns run by BJP boasted of development of the whole nation, but there has been no development as such. The work on Congress’ campaign strategy began in October 2018, with a counter-narrative on BJP’s ‘Main Bhi Chowkidaar Campaign. The campaigns have been outsourced to the agencies that worked with Congress for the 2014 elections and has given results in the past. There is a dual campaign strategy- one for the States where there is a direct fight with BJP and the other where it is fighting in alliance with regional parties. The party has hired three agencies- DesignBoxed, Niksun, and India-based Silverpush.

 

The main focus apart from countering BJP’s campaign would be jobs, GST, demonetization and rest of the non-fulfilled promises made by BJP. Silver Push has been roped in to run Congress’ media and outdoor campaigns. Silver Push, the Gurgaon-based company works around optimizing TV and OTT media. The prime focus will be on Facebook for content uploading and WhatsApp for distribution. Since social media has a very big role to play in these elections, all the major platforms have agreed to a general code of ethics and agreed to take down requests by the Election Commission of India. Research conducted by some analysts claims that Facebook and WhatsApp might be able to swing votes this year. Since Facebook acts as a bigger influencer than Twitter for the urban middle class and lower-middle-class population. The campaigns will also target 130 million first time voters and 110 million second time voters. A total of 900 million voter turnout is expected in this election.

Author's Note

silverpush, Silver Push