The just concluded elections to the Telangana state assembly have witnessed mushrooming of several social media channels and digital media platforms, taking advantage of the craze among the political parties towards them.
Irrespective of their public interface and effectiveness of reporting, these channels made quick money from politicians, as the parties thought they could reach out to maximum number of people easily through these platforms.
So, one could have witnessed hundreds of social media channels and digital media portals working for various political parties and taking up the campaign on their behalf to convey their respective party messages.
According to sources, Bharat Rashtra Samithi had bought as many as 300 such digital media and social media channels to influence the people. These channels, not only carried the campaign on behalf of the party, but also tried to do interviews and stories that would benefit the party.
The brain behind the purchase of these channels was said to be BRS working president K T Rama Rao and his team. They tried everything – walk the talks, interviews, street talks and even KTR taking part in a cookery show with popular YouTuber old woman Gangavva.
However, all such efforts have gone down the drain following the defeat of BRS in the elections. The channels made money, but the party did not gain anything much from their fabricated stories and fake public influencing.
Now, majority of them have no business and no shows and they are now forced to shut down. Maybe, by next Lok Sabha elections, some of them might get activated!