No more roadshows but Phase IV campaign goes on online

Howrah/Kolkata: In this era of social media proliferation, election campaign never seems to end.
The canvassing for the fourth phase of Bengal elections officially ended at 6pm on Saturday after which candidates could sit back and unwind after their gruelling schedule on roads, but their online outreach programme continued unabated on WhatsApp, Facebook and YouTube.Candidates may not be allowed to take to the roads anymore for now, but party supporters said the online campaign would go on till polling was over on Monday. This, sources said, could be carried out owing to the lack of a clear rule defining the deadline for election canvassing on the internet. Under the election guidelines, road campaigns have to be stopped 48 hours before the polls.
"We don't treat WhatsApp messages and candidates' Facebook pages as campaign material. They are merely online content and so, the 48-hour rule does not strictly apply. However, if anyone lodges a complaint, we will look into the content," said additional electoral officer Dibyendu Sarkar.
So now, hundreds of audio-video clips, cartoons, photographs and internet memes-some promoting candidates and others taking a dig at rivals-are doing the rounds on smartphones in Howrah, Dum Dum and Bidhannagar, the three constituencies set to vote today. A morphed photograph of Union home minister Rajnath Singh garlanding Trinamool MP Derek O'Brien has gone viral in Howrah. CPM party workers are apparently circulating the image, saying this was their answer to the photograph of Singh offering sweet to a morphed image of Prakash Karat, which has led to three complaints being registered against Derek. "We did not have the WhatsApp facility in 2011. Facebook was there but we were not too conversant with it to use it for election campaign. But now, we have gone all out to use technology to our advantage," said CPM district secretary Biplab Majumdar.
Speeches of Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi and Surjya Kanta Mishra are being forwarded by their respective party workers. Stating that they were merely the "common man" and not the candidates themselves, and so no one could stop them from their "online activities".
In Howrah, the three candidates for whom online campaigning peaked on Sunday were, Howrah North Trinamool candidate Lakshmi Ratan Shukla, his BJP opponent Roopa Ganguly and Bally Trinamool candidate Vaishali Dalmiya. While the candidates themselves desisted from posting and forwarding material, seeking public favour for the elections, their supporters, who have started pages and communities on the social media platform, did the needful. "We have released at least 70,000 WhatsApp messages, supporting Lakshmi Ratan Shukla, and there has been a huge response," said Manav Shaw, the Howrah North Trinamool technical campaign cell in-charge.
Among the CPM candidates to use internet to the hilt are Bally candidate Anjan Bera and Howrah South candidate Arindam Bose. Even in Bidhannagar, Arunava Ghosh and rival Sujit Bose were seen "fighting it out virtually" till late on Sunday. State tourism minister Bratya Basu, the Trinamool's Dum Dum candidate, has also gone online as his supporters kept "liking" and forwarding relevant campaign material till late on Sunday.