The BJP’s origins lie in the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, formed in 1951 by Syama Prasad Mookerjee. After the State of Emergency in 1977, the Jana Sangh merged with several other parties to form the Janata Party; it defeated the incumbent Congress party in the 1977 general election. After three years in power, the Janata party dissolved in 1980 with the members of the erstwhile Jana Sangh reconvening to form the BJP. Although initially unsuccessful, winning only two seats in the 1984 general election, it grew in strength on the back of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. Following victories in several state elections and better performances in national elections, the BJP became the largest party in the parliament in 1996; however, it lacked a majority in the lower house of Parliament, and its government lasted only 13 days.
After the 1998 general election, the BJP-led coalition known as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) formed a government under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee for a year. Following fresh elections, the NDA government, again headed by Vajpayee, lasted for a full term in office; this was the first non-Congress government to do so. In the 2004 general election, the NDA suffered an unexpected defeat, and for the next ten years the BJP was the principal opposition party. Long time Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi led it to a landslide victory in the 2014 general election. Since that election, Modi leads the NDA government as Prime Minister and as of March 2015, the alliance governs 13 states.
OBJECTIVES OF BJP
BJP is often described as centre-right in nature. The concept of Hindutva has a special place in its ideology, with the party aiming to transform India in to a modern, progressive and enlightened nation which draws inspiration from India’s ancient Hindu culture and values. As per the party’s constitution the objectives of the party are explained thus:
“The party is pledged to build up India as a strong and prosperous nation, which is modern, progressive and enlightened in outlook and which proudly draws inspiration from India’s ancient culture and values and thus is able to emerge as a great world power playing an effective role in the comity of Nations for the establishment of world peace and a just international order. The Party aims at establishing a democratic state which guarantees to all citizens irrespective of caste, creed or sex, political, social and economic justice, equality of opportunity and liberty of faith and expression. The Party shall bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India as by law established and to the principles of socialism, secularism and democracy and would uphold the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India.”
STRATEGIES adopted by BJP
after facing back to back defeats in the 2004 and 2009 general elections. Over the years, BJP has become one of the pioneers in tapping the new age media to the best of its potential. Right from having an interactive website, to a dedicated volunteer’s dashboard, mobile apps, extracting the most out of Google Hangouts, Facebook Page, Twitter handle, YouTube Page, Whatsapp they haven’t missed a single trick from the book to make sure that they connect with the masses at multiple touch points with a unified tone of messaging and engagement.
Achievements of BJP
Bharatiya Janta Party has a very strong and active presence on major social media networks, i.e. Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. According to the MTS election tracker, the party has the highest number of fans (2.5 million) on Facebook, as compared to its competitors. Apart from the official page, there are a number of other pages (Narendra Modi , India 272+ , CAG , Friends of BJP to name a few ) which assist the party in the endeavor of connecting with maximum number of people on Facebook.
On Twitter, the BJP4India twitter handle lags behind one of the competitors, the Aam Aadmi Party, with 374k followers but again the party has a well knitted network of twitter handles which add to their reach and timeline deliveries at the end of the day. The Prime Ministerial Candidate Narendra Modi’s official twitter handle has 3.5 million followers while AAP’s Convener Arvind Kejriwal has 1.47 million followers.
Learnings
After the stunning defeats in 2004 and 2009, the Bharatiya Janta Party has evolved as a stronger and more accomplished political party, focusing equally on the conventional and the new age tactics for election campaigning. The party has resorted to a radical shift in their approach by projecting Growth and Development as the key agenda.
They have adopted a multi-phased strategy with overlapping objectives laid out to fulfill the common goal of winning 272+ seats in the 2014 General Elections.
From the year 2010 till 2012 the strategy was inclined towards connecting with the internet savvy generation on their preferred social networks. Post 2012, the party adopted a twin strategy which included connecting with more and more people but at the same time building an interest and the desire to stay connected by opening up the doors of IT cell, India 272+ and various other volunteer communities, instilling the feeling of pride in being associated with BJP.
The current phase of strategy is majorly aimed at engaging with the pool of fans/followers/subscribers, inspiring volunteers to stretch more and pushing forth the vital message ‘Vote For BJP’, leading to the actual conversion. With the multi-phased Social Media Strategy BJP intends to:
- Connect with new and existing voters’ population
- Spread Awareness about the party’s agenda, campaigns
- Generate Interest and Desire for the party’s initiatives and future prospects
- Register party’s name with keywords- Growth, Development, Alternative for Change
- Nurture a community of Brand Advocates for the party
- Integrate offline-online campaigns to broaden the spectrum
- Engage with the youth and inspire them to contribute their bit towards the mission
In terms of social media marketing strategy, BJP has stormed ahead in the race under the leadership of Shri Narendra Modi. While other political parties are still working on the nascent stages of building communities, BJP already has a huge community of fans, followers and subscribers to assist them in communicating their messages to the masses.
Image Credits: BJP official website
