The Impact of Social Media on the 2025 Election Campaigns

The age of social media is upon us. The majority of people are addicted to their cellphones from dawn to night, checking Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram, Linkedin, and YouTube wherever they are - at home, at work, on public transportation, and on the highways. As Internet addiction rises, social media is becoming the most effective way to communicate.

India is the second largest Internet market, after China, with over 460 million internet users. India is expected to have 635.8 million internet users by 2025. In India, social networking is becoming more widely used, particularly by young people from the new generation.

The Power of Social Media Influence

The globe saw Obama's successful social media initiatives in 2008 and 2012. Obama was not just the first African American elected president, but he was also the first to successfully employ social media as a primary campaign tool. Reminders to vote were sent out on Twitter to American citizens in 2008, and social media interaction was all the rage.

Following in his footsteps, the BJP jumped headfirst into social media discussions in 2014. Their ongoing efforts were focused on raising awareness and establishing a direct line of communication with the electorate. Every day, rival hashtags such as #NaMoInUdhampur and #KejriwalInVaranasi emerged. Discussions on politics are popular among the young and old.

Digital Campaigning and Online Engagement

For the 2019 general elections, a flurry of pro- and anti-political advertisements is already visible on our cellphones. Leaders in the advertising industry and specialists in the field are placing bets on the campaigns' total budget, which comes to Rs. 5,000 crore. In terms of the accomplishments of his administration over the past four years, the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party has already invested a significant amount of money in promoting "Brand Modi." The focus of all BJP campaigns, as well as those of its several ministries and departments, has been NaMo.

# Nearly Rs. 1,500–2,000 crore would probably be spent on mass media by the main opposition Congress, and another Rs. 400–500 crore on digital campaigns.

We cannot deny that there is a complicated synergistic link between politics, media, and elections. Social media platforms have emerged as a crucial forum for the discussion of political narratives.

Voter Outreach and Digital Advertising

There was a recent meeting of the BJP unit in Uttar Pradesh, and a large number of people from other states attended. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Home Minister Rajnath Singh were among those present at the Meerut event. Amit Shah, the president of the BJP, was present at the social media workshop. The message is clear: in 2019, social media will be their primary focus, even if it was the X-factor in 2014 surveys. It appears that the BJP intends to assign a social media coordinator to each polling booth. Taking into account that every booth has roughly 2,000 voters, the BJP's social media team nationwide would come across roughly 4.5 lakh social media coordinators.

There are 81.5 crore voters in India, according to Election Commission figures, and among them are BJP employees and volunteers with social media training. Every single one of them has a smartphone. What a brilliant tactic. A few months remain until the 2019 election, and already, thousands of volunteers are at work. However, the BJP is searching for a great deal more since they need to extend their campaigns into the far-flung interior regions of India. The BJP is planning a ton of events in an effort to strengthen their social media initiatives. It was decided to have two pramukhs for each page after the page pramukh strategy—one worker in charge of each page list of voters—worked well in Gujarat. As each page has a front and a back

The Election Commission of India has a large work ahead of them; they have formed a group to examine the increasing usage of social media sites like Facebook, YouTube, and WhatsApp. The panel has suggested procedures for handling infractions. Religious and ethnic conflicts have increased recently in the country; few people are killed as a result of social media rumors about rapes, kidnappings of children, and cow smuggling. On social media, paid and fake news are topics of concern and misuse. In order to close any gaps before the upcoming general election, the Election Commission of India is tightening its laws and regulations.