Virtual campaigning: BJP replaces rath with Zoom for election rallies

EC norms for physical campaigning push leaders to switch to virtual platforms

The year was 2002 (September-October) and campaigning for Assembly elections in Gujarat was in full swing. The crowd was waiting for Narendra Modi. As the Mazda truck, redesigned as an air-conditioned chariot (rath) glided to a halt, a makeshift podium with a canopy emerged slowly from the middle of the rath via a hydraulic lift. Standing at the centre, raising his hands, smiling, was Modi, in a scene that was a cross between Mahabharata and Star Wars. The gasp of the crowd was almost audible.

However, Covid-19 has changed all of that. There will be few public meetings, even fewer