 "AAP poll candidates 'Hangout' with voters")
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) connecting its candidates to the urban, tech-savvy and office-going voters through video chat platform Google+ Hangout. Ankur Srivastava, member of the party's technology and social media governance team, said, "The candidates which usually do campaigning on ground miss out on the office-goers. This gives them the opportunity to conveniently reach out to that segment, along with people who heavily use the social media." The party has strategised the interaction in a way that candidates with different backgrounds share the same stage to reach out to voters.
On Saturday TIME's former journalist Anita Pratap (party's Ernakulum, Kerala, candidate), Infosys' former chief financial officer V Balakrishnan (Bangalore Central, Karnataka) and professor Mohan Mishra (Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh) held Google+ Hangout sessions.
Balakrishnan told Business Standard, "There is a huge set of people online who want their queries heard. This is a great medium to reach out to a large spectrum."
This medium is not new to the party. Through it, chief Arvind Kejriwal, with seniors Prashant Bhushan, Yogendra Yadav and Manish Sisodia, has interacted with people on various issues, including why the party quit Delhi government in 49 days. The party claims during these interactions, it had got a substantial response and 5,000 viewers were present in a single interaction. The party plans to stage 60-70 candidates through this medium.
The party had broadcasted Kejriwal's Bangalore rally through Youtube. About 40,000 saw the rally live.
Bhartiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi made his debut on this application in 2012. It was a huge hit as 80,000 worldwide had joined him live. P Chidambaram, Milind Deora and Shashi Tharoor followed.
Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi recently held a session with party workers through this medium.
On Saturday TIME's former journalist Anita Pratap (party's Ernakulum, Kerala, candidate), Infosys' former chief financial officer V Balakrishnan (Bangalore Central, Karnataka) and professor Mohan Mishra (Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh) held Google+ Hangout sessions.
Balakrishnan told Business Standard, "There is a huge set of people online who want their queries heard. This is a great medium to reach out to a large spectrum."
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Ankur Lal, party's social media and information technology administrator, said as the election dates got closer, the party was utilising various other channels such as Youtube broadcast, Blackberry Channel, WhatsApp, Facebook, Quora, etc, to reach out to the urban voters.
This medium is not new to the party. Through it, chief Arvind Kejriwal, with seniors Prashant Bhushan, Yogendra Yadav and Manish Sisodia, has interacted with people on various issues, including why the party quit Delhi government in 49 days. The party claims during these interactions, it had got a substantial response and 5,000 viewers were present in a single interaction. The party plans to stage 60-70 candidates through this medium.
The party had broadcasted Kejriwal's Bangalore rally through Youtube. About 40,000 saw the rally live.
Bhartiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi made his debut on this application in 2012. It was a huge hit as 80,000 worldwide had joined him live. P Chidambaram, Milind Deora and Shashi Tharoor followed.
Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi recently held a session with party workers through this medium.