Title: Metamorphosis of Indian electoral campaigns: Modi's social media experiment

Authors: Kawaljeet Kaur Kapoor; Yogesh K. Dwivedi

Addresses: School of Business, Brunel University London, Uxbridge, UB8 3PH, UK ' School of Management, Swansea University, Swansea, SA2 8PP, Wales, UK

Abstract: India's 2014 prime ministerial elections witnessed an unprecedented outcome, where the Bharatiya Janta Party callously defeated the Indian National Congress by majority votes, and Narendra Modi stood elected as the 15th prime minister of India. This outstanding electoral victory is being extensively debated and analysed across print and broadcast media for its remarkable campaigning strategies that successfully established a two way dialogue between the prime ministerial elect, Narendra Modi, and the voter population of India. The use of social media and adoption of campaigning tactics from the Obama US-presidential campaign have been centric to this winning campaign for brand NaMo. The amalgamation of social media and election campaigning has clearly redefined the face of political movements in India. The stratagem that team Modi followed to break the Congress era running in the country over the past decade will be concisely anatomised, with particular interest in the role and power of social media in giving a political party that winning edge over its opposition.

Keywords: social media; digital media; India; elections; Narendra Modi; NaMo; electoral campaigns; BJP; campaigning tactics.

DOI: 10.1504/IJICBM.2015.072430

International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management, 2015 Vol.11 No.4, pp.496 - 516

Received: 14 Oct 2014
Accepted: 29 Nov 2014
Published online: 13 Oct 2015 *

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