Electoral scene

Prashant Kishor Meets Gandhis Amid Renewed Buzz About Joining Congress Apr 16, 2022 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6nvS7zghA4  NDTV

Part of article on Congress by Mar 27, 2022 | Prem Shankar Jha ‘Out With the Gandhis’ a Cry of Despair; With No Obvious Replacement, Cure May Be Worse than Disease 

In 2014, the youth of northern India believed Narendra Modi offered them hope of a better, more secure future.. in 2019 they still voted for him because the opposition had offered no alternative vision of the future either. Three years have passed and there is still no clear perception of the threat that a continuation of BJP rule poses to India’s future .– and still no offer of an alternative, better future. So, it is looking more and more as if the BJP will win the 2024 general elections too.

There is an even chance that by 2029 the Indian Union will cease to exist.

Read more …

How a Reliance-funded firm boosts BJP’s campaigns on Facebook By Kumar Sambhav and Nayantara Ranganathan 14 Mar 2022    https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/3/14/how-a-reliance-funded-company-boosts-bjps-campaigns-on-facebook
Loopholes in how the Election Commission of India (ECI) applies the law and a selective application of Facebook’s rules and processes allowed India’s largest conglomerate to pump in millions of rupees to place and promote these surrogate advertisements to boost the reach and popularity of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP in the lead up to the 2019 parliamentary elections and nine state elections. Surrogate advertisements promote a political candidate but are not directly funded or authorised by that candidate.

When Facebook did crack down on surrogate advertisements, ostensibly to ensure transparency and accountability, it did so by mostly targeting advertisers promoting BJP’s main opponent, Congress, but allowed pages like NEWJ  (New Emerging World of Journalism Limited, is a subsidiary of Jio Platforms Ltd, to continue.)

Over the past year, The Reporters’ Collective (TRC), a non-profit media organisation based in India, and ad.watch, a research project studying political ads on social media, analysed data of all the 536,070 political advertisements placed on Facebook and Instagram from February 2019 through November 2020 to assess the influence of Facebook’s political advertising policies on elections in the country. They  found that in those 22 months, Facebook’s advertising platform systematically undercut the political competition in the world’s largest electoral democracy, giving an unfair advantage to the BJP over its competitors.

Part 2: It's not the only firm covertly pushing the BJP. There are many others. https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/3/15/inside-facebook-and-bjps-world-of-ghost-advertisers 

Part 3: Out today: Facebook is actually charging a lower rate for the BJP than for parties like the Congress. https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/3/16/facebook-charged-bjp-lower-rates-for-india-polls-ads-than-others 

Farmers’ leaders, activists debunk exit polls; media cut off from ground realities, says Hannan Mollah  https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/india/farmers-leaders-activists-debunk-exit-polls-media-cut-off-from-ground-realities-says-hannan-mollah 
Hannan Mollah, one of those who led farmers’ protest against farm laws, later withdrawn by PM, said that television media has lost its credibility, as past exit polls had turned out to be inaccurate

All the farmers’ unions including AIKS – under the banner of SKM, an umbrella body of 40 farmers’ unions –campaigned against the BJP in all five states that went to the polls, with a special focus on Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. When asked whether the farmers' protests had failed to mobilize farmers as an anti-BJP force, Mollah said, “Only history can tell the truth. An unbiased study is required to gauge the impact of the protest on society.”

SKM emphatically asked people to punish the BJP which they believe is responsible for the death of over 700 farmers while the protests were underway.