Mangaluru(Naina JA/DHNS): With the elections around the corner, social media have emerged as a platform for political parties to reach out to a large number of people.

Major political parties, like the BJP, Congress and others, have been working out strategies to connect to the people in addition to the door-to-door campaign.

The political parties have made their social media cells active and working out strategies in the Dakshina Kannada district.

“Social media channels, including WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, are emerging as a tool to reach out to the people in the district,” BJP District Social Media Cell coordinator Ajith Kumar Ullal and Poornesh Bhandari, head of Congress Social Media Cell in DK district, said.

“We have begun our groundwork at the booth level. The BJP’s narrative is development. We have been sharing contents pertaining to the development works and achievements of the BJP government with facts and figures by contacting the beneficiaries as well,” Ajith Kumar Ullal told DH.

“A conclave has also been planned to throw light on how to share content and counter criticism on social media responsibly with facts. We are into healthy criticism and not attacking other political parties. Negative contents are used only for trolling,” he said.

‘’The parties have been using their official Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram handles to reach out to the people. Along with the district-level social media cell, the BJP MLAs in the district have their own teams at the constituency levels to manage the social media content,’’ he said.

All the eight MLAs in the district had been using social media, especially Facebook, to share all the photos of the development works carried out in their constituency and their daily visits to various places in the constituency.

DK District Congress Social Media Cell head Poornesh Bhandari said, “We are focusing on content creation and its distribution by way of sharing it on social media platforms. Full-fledged teams have been constituted for content writing, graphic design and so on. Social media groups have been created at the booth level to share the content.’’

He added, “We ensure that contents received from national and state units reach the people. A legal team having experts in laws pertaining to the model code of conduct and other aspects have also been set up. The election commission has directed to seek permission from the concerned to share political campaign content on social media. The legal team will look into any legal hurdles during the campaign on social media.’’

While adhering to the guidelines of the Election Commission, the social media cell of the Congress is engaged in sharing content as part of the campaign, Bhandari said.

Other political parties, especially SDPI and AAP, also have been using social media platforms.