Online campaign: Why did Advani fail?

Two major elections took place in two of the world’s largest democracies within a matter of six months. While the result of the first one (USA) was on expected lines, that of the latter (India) threw some surprises. However, in the end both results reaffirmed people’s faith in democracy, despite all its shortcomings.

If there are any significant similarities in the two elections, it is in the online campaign that was extensively used by leaders in both countries. This was for the first time that online campaign was used so widely to woo the young voters. In fact, much of Obama’s success lay in his ability to attract youngsters through his online campaign.

Obama laid great emphasis on convincing the GenNext to vote for change. Through systematic research he found out that youngsters were very slow in voting and he took it upon himself to make them politically active. He did not rely only on advertisements, though he spent the maximum in various types and forms of advertisements. He recruited volunteers throughout different communities to work for his campaign. Through his charismatic approach he built up a network of very loyal supporters to build newer personal relationships.

Apart from TV, radio, advertising, events and press releases, online campaign was key to his successful campaign. His website was linked to his personal blog and social networks such as facebook, myspace, youtube, dig and twitter. Also the whole archive of videos of his speeches was available online. People could even sign up on his website to receive regular updates about the campaign.

The result? Over 130 million people turned out to vote, out of whom 67. 7 per cent voted for him as against 32.3 for McCain. The voter turn out in some states was as high as 82 per cent.

L. K. Advani, the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate too tried a similar online strategy. A committed team of 20-30 young professionals worked hard for months to make a successful ‘Advani-for-PM’ online campaign. In fact, Advani’s picture appeared in over 2000 important and popular websites throughout India. Even when one typed words like Congress, Rahul Gandhi, Manmohan Singh etc. Advani’s picture would pop up on the right side of the screen. It is learnt that BJP’s IT team had chosen more that 1000 important key words which would lead to L. K. Advani’s ad. Many bloggers expressed their dissent at being subjected to view unsolicited political ads with not-so-pleasing picture of Advani. According to the BJP, though, they were able to attract more than 25,000 online visitors daily as the election date approached.

Despite all this systematic work why did Mr Advani’s online campaign fail? Simple answer: Advani is not Obama and India is not US. In India only five per cent of people visit the internet. In fact, for 34 per cent of our people such campaign makes no sense, because they cannot read and write. Nearly 70 per cent of our people still live in villages, hundreds of them remote having no electricity connection. So the BJP’s online campaign reached only the urban net savvy generation most of which cares a dime for voting. Accordingly, the BJP’s strategy was doomed to be a failure even before it was kickstarted with much fanfare.

Then, or course, there was the Advani factor. No one questions Advani’s physical fitness despite age and his oratory skills. But age can still be a factor. While American voter saw youthfulness and newness in Obama, Indian voter was not so sure about Advani. Added to this was the youthful factor of Rahul Gandhi who brought in a lot of youngsters into the party and eventually was responsible for the victory of many of them.

So what has the online campaigns to tell us? In an American context it is crucial and can make a difference in the election of the President, as the percentage of online visitors is very high. However, India has still a long way to go. The government’s over-concentration on cities year after year has only alienated the rural population, especially from benefiting from the fruits of IT revolution. Even in the next General Election it is unlikely that the online campaign will make a difference for the election of our Prime Minister.