Campaign songs are more and more very important instruments for political communication, providing a catchy and accessible medium to amplify candidates’ messages and mobilise voters. This research analysed 150 YouTube marketing campaign songs — 80 supporting the Congress and 70 the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — uploaded between January 1 and April 10, 2024. These two events had been chosen on account of their nationwide presence and excessive digital output. Songs had been chosen by stratified sampling from a grasp checklist created through keyword-based YouTube searches. Sampling was carried out from completely different sources: official occasion channels, candidates’ channels, and unbiased supporter channels, with consideration to range in engagement ranges and channel dimension. Songs had been manually coded utilizing a structured codebook masking themes, tone, references, mobilisation cues, and manufacturing types. Most songs had been sourced from unbiased channels (89% for INC, 81% for BJP), with fewer uploads from official occasion or candidate accounts. This methodology allowed the research to analyse each official messaging and grassroots, decentralised narratives, together with extra fringe or excessive views, particularly with respect to content material from the BJP’s supporter base.
BJP songs centred on Prime Minister Modi, projecting belief and continuity. Religious references (“Ram,” “temple,” “saffron”) underscored Hindutva appeals, notably across the Ram Temple. Nationalist themes had been distinguished, with phrases equivalent to “Bharat Mata,” “Kashmir,” and “enemy” being generally used. Economic themes appeared through phrases like “assure,” “farmer,” and “poor,” whereas “victory” and “wave” conveyed momentum and confidence. The Congress’s songs highlighted management by frequent mentions of “Gandhi,” “Rahul,” and “Priyanka.” Core themes included justice, rights, and systemic change, signalling a deal with fairness. Words like “hope” and “save nation” framed the marketing campaign as reformist.
Catch-phrases and narratives
A lyrical and phrase cloud evaluation reveals distinct methods by the BJP and Congress. BJP songs targeted on Mr. Modi, with slogans like “Modi hai to mumkin hai”, “Modi ki assure”, and “Aayega to Modi hello” linking him to progress and stability. Direct assaults on opponents had been uncommon (Table 1).
Congress songs highlighted Rahul Gandhi and the occasion’s legacy with phrases like “Desh ki dhadkan Rahul” and “Nehru si soch hai”, portraying him as a contemporary visionary. Emotional appeals referencing sacrifice, equivalent to “Indira-Rajiv ne jaan gawayi”, sought to encourage loyalty and continuity. Unlike BJP, Congress songs contained direct criticism, with strains like “Loktantra ka bhediya” and “Jhutho se desh bachana hai”, framing the ruling occasion as a risk to democracy. Both the BJP and the Congress employed marketing campaign songs to interact key voter teams, emphasising distinct priorities. BJP’s lyrics highlighted Hindu id, girls, and farmers, whereas Congress targeted extra on youth, girls, and minority inclusion. Visual content material strengthened these themes, with Congress giving better prominence to city, rural, and scholar populations (Table 2).
Moreover, BJP songs closely highlighted previous achievements (35%), showcasing governance successes, whereas the Congress targeted on future guarantees and reforms (Table 3).
Calls for change (17%) and themes of social justice (6%) appeared extra prominently in Congress’s messaging, aligning with its opposition function. Congress additionally straight critiqued the ruling occasion in 22% of its songs; BJP not often engaged on this (1%).
Religious connotations had been distinguished in BJP’s songs (72%), reflecting Hindu nationalist themes and that includes symbolic references to Ram Mandir and slogans equivalent to “Jai Shree Ram.” Unofficial songs had been extra overtly communal. In distinction, solely 10% of Congress songs contained spiritual themes, reflecting a extra pluralistic communication type (Table 4).
While BJP’s spiritual messaging was largely rhetorical, the Congress leaned extra on visible illustration. Religious imagery appeared in 43% of the Congress’s movies in comparison with 37% of the BJP’s. The Congress additionally featured spiritual clerics extra prominently (29% versus BJP’s 11%), signalling efforts to interact a number of religion communities (Table 5).
On third-party campaigners
Third-party campaigners, together with people, political consultancies, and advocacy teams, have gained important affect within the digital age, shaping electoral dynamics by focused ads on platforms like Meta (previously Facebook). These entities, which don’t area candidates, usually marketing campaign for or towards particular events, candidates, or points. In India, third-party campaigners make investments closely in digital adverts, generally bypassing political finance and content material rules. This unregulated spending raises considerations about transparency and accountability, suggesting potential collusion with political events. Their rising function underscores the necessity for stronger oversight in trendy electoral campaigns.
The Lokniti-CSDS research focuses on digital campaigning by third-party advertisers on Meta (previously Facebook) throughout the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Conducted over the essential months of April and May 2024, the research additionally targeted on figuring out the highest 50 highest spenders on Meta, with 31 of them being third-party advertisers. This evaluation delves into the function of those entities in shaping electoral narratives by digital adverts, shedding gentle on their affect and spending patterns. The promoting expenditure of those third-party campaigners ranged from ₹0.6 million to ₹73 million throughout the research interval. The evaluation covers 1,114 randomly chosen adverts from 31 campaigners to evaluate their digital methods, unbiased of any occasion or candidate endorsements.
Third-party campaigners on Meta used catchy and provocative names to draw consideration, equivalent to “Mahathugbandhan,” which critiques the INDI Alliance, and “Hirak Rani Bye Bye,” which portrayed Mamata Banerjee as a dictator, impressed by the movie Hirak Rajar Deshe. These artistic names had been a part of a broader technique to affect public notion. The Meta Ad Library reveals the monetary backers behind these campaigns, which incorporates entities just like the Populus Empowerment Network and Vyuhah Consulting. Some political events, just like the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the Congress, have been discovered funding third-party advertisers, elevating considerations about transparency and the potential for circumventing expenditure limits. The lack of detailed funding info within the Meta Ad Library complicates accountability, creating avenues for unregulated affect within the electoral course of (Table 6).
An evaluation of the adverts posted by the 31 third-party campaigners revealed a large variation in spending, starting from beneath ₹5,000 to over ₹1,00,000 per advert. The majority (72%) of the adverts had expenditures capped at ₹50,000, whereas 28% exceeded this quantity (Table 7).
In phrases of engagement, impressions reflecting how usually an advert appeared on a display served as a key metric. Interestingly, 53% of adverts obtained as much as 5,00,000 impressions, whereas the remaining 47% surpassed 5,00,000 impressions. This highlights the numerous attain and potential influence of those third-party marketing campaign adverts (Table 8).
Thematic evaluation of third-party marketing campaign ads reveals a variety of methods, with key themes rising throughout content material. A significant focus was criticism geared toward opposition events, their leaders, and their supporters. Religious themes had been additionally distinguished, with adverts both accusing events of being anti-Hindu or praising them for supporting Sanatan Dharma. The most regarding adverts included misinformation and Islamophobic content material, utilizing derogatory language and divisive techniques to sway voter sentiment. This evaluation reveals a transparent pattern — majority of third-party adverts carried a damaging tone, with these adverts sometimes having greater spending in comparison with optimistic or impartial ones. In reality, 46% of the damaging tone adverts achieved impressions exceeding a million, in comparison with simply 26% for optimistic adverts, demonstrating that damaging content material has a far better attain and influence (Table 9).
Furthermore, damaging ads had been notably efficient amongst youthful audiences, with 83% of those adverts being consumed by people aged 18-34.
Third-party ads, usually marked by damaging tones and problematic content material, have raised severe considerations. These adverts often used inflammatory captions equivalent to “Bengali Muslims, will they make Bengal Bangladesh?” and derogatory phrases like “Babur ki Santaan” directed at Muslims. Political leaders had been additionally targets of such adverts, with Rahul Gandhi being referred to as “Makkar” and Mamata Banerjee depicted as hiding behind terrorist teams like ISIS. Misinformation was rampant, and a few adverts even alleged exterior interference in Indian elections by figures like George Soros. This highlights the pressing want for stricter regulation of third-party advertisers, focusing not simply on content material but additionally on the sources of their funding and affiliations with political events. Such measures are crucial to make sure transparency, equity, and to guard the integrity of the democratic course of.
On social media influencers
Social media has develop into a robust platform for political expression, with people sharing views on key points and occasions. Social Media Influencers (SMIs) have emerged as key figures on this panorama. These people, with massive followings, can form public opinion by sharing content material that resonates with their viewers. Unlike conventional media, SMIs keep independence, enhancing their credibility. This research analysed 30 SMIs lively between January and June 2024, and divided them into two teams — Critical Social Media Influencers (CSMIs), who critique the federal government, and Supportive Social Media Influencers (SSMIs), who endorse the federal government. The chosen SMIs had been categorised based mostly on their follower rely: two influencers had 50,000-99,999 followers, 9 had between 1,00,000-4,99,999 followers, and 5 had 5,00,000-9,99,999 followers. The pattern additionally included eight influencers with 1-2 million followers, and 6 influencers with over 2 million followers (Table 10).
During the evaluation interval, 83% of CSMIs and 81% of SSMIs posted greater than 10 political posts per thirty days. Among CSMIs, 3% of content material was paid for, in comparison with 4% amongst SSMIs. This signifies that the overwhelming majority of political content material produced by each teams was natural moderately than financially supported. The political content material shared by SMIs coated a variety of subjects. CSMIs primarily targeted on political leaders (52%), adopted by 26% discussing elections, and 23% on ongoing controversies. SSMIs focused on political leaders (47%) and the INDI alliance (42%) (Table 11).
The 2024 Lok Sabha elections underscored a major evolution in India’s digital campaigning, bringing each sophistication and new challenges to electoral transparency. The rising complexity of digital campaigning, encompassing scaled personalisation, cross-platform messaging, and third-party affect has uncovered systemic gaps in present rules. Without pressing reforms to handle real-time transparency, platform accountability, and the evolving function of third-party actors, the integrity of India’s electoral system might be compromised. It is important to implement measures that deal with the challenges posed by a digitalised electoral setting.
The staff comprised Sanjay Kumar (Professor and Co-director Lokniti-CSDS); Suhas Palshikar (Taught political science and is chief editor of Studies in Indian Politics), Sandeep Shastri (Director-Academics, NITTE Education Trust and the National Coordinator of the Lokniti Network), Aditi Singh (Assistant Professor, Jindal Global Law School, O.P. Jindal Global University) and Vibha Attri (Research Associate at Lokniti-CSDS).
