Modi’s party volunteers targeting 100,000 people a day
By Yogita Limaye, Shruti Menon & Jack Goodman
Ankur Rana types furiously into his phone, sending messages across the hundreds of WhatsApp groups he manages.
It is a tightly controlled operation: BJP volunteers in Meerut say that each day, the party’s headquarters in Delhi sends political messages and hashtags – these range from praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP to criticising the opposition – that need to trend to the state-level headquarters.
“Each member of the party, from the bottom to the very top, including the party president, is responsible for 60 voters,” said Vipin Vipala, in charge of campaigning for the BJP near a polling booth in Meerut.
Kiran Garimella, assistant professor at Rutgers University, who is researching the use of WhatsApp in India, says that the official narrative of political parties is often mirrored on private groups – but then, it becomes difficult to unpick what is official, and what is unofficial.
