BJP Deploys Heavy WhatsApp Blitzkrieg to Influence Millions of Voters Every 24 Hours

The BJP has mobilized an army of volunteers running hundreds of WhatsApp groups to spread its messaging to millions daily, blurring the lines between truth and rumor.

BJP is one of the most active political parties on social media especially as India’s 2024 general election campaign heats up. It all rests in an army of volunteers using hundreds of WhatsApp groups to spread the party’s message to new people with up to 100,000 to 150,000 individuals daily.

The BJP workers involved in social media management in Uttar Pradesh opine that the operation is quite centralized, with the headquarters in Delhi sending daily information about the messaging, hashtags, and points to talk about. These are then extended to state units and eventually the constituency-level volunteers such as Ankur Rana.

Rana is solely in charge of about 400-450 WhatsApp groups, each comprising 200-300 participants, and this reaches 10,000-15,000 people daily. Taking this to dozens of constituencies in Uttar Pradesh allows the BJP to take its narrative to millions.

”This is a well-orchestrated affair from on high,” commented one volunteer, who preferred to remain anonymous. The BJP did not respond to an email sent to it seeking its comment on the issue.

While the party shares its successes on the official pages, people use closed groups in applications such as WhatsApp to discuss fake news and radical opinions, experts say. Sensational and unfounded accusations against the opposition parties have been making the rounds of these platforms.

One of these claims is that Congress sought to make India into an ‘Islamic country’ The latter seems to mimic BJP rhetoric on the Muslim appeasement by other parties. There was another forward ahead of the assembly polls which stated that Modi had Russia stop the Ukraine invasion to evacuate Indians – which goes against the previous stance of the Indian government.

“Sometimes what is clearly stated as the official version becomes a myth in these private groups, it becomes very difficult to distinguish between facts and myths,” said Kiran Garimella, a researcher who is exploring the impact of WhatsApp in Indian elections.

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It is noteworthy that WhatsApp has become one of the most popular platforms with over 500 million users and has the potential to become a major campaign focus. As people come across political ads on the platform, doubts arise about the ability to discern the truth from the falsehood before the decisive vote.