Nitin Gadkari, India’s road minister and a senior figure in the governing Bharatiya Janata party, sat down for a Chinese meal last month with food-and-travel-focused social media influencer Kamiya Jani.
In a nearly hour-long video on Jani’s “Curly Tales” YouTube channel that has been watched 2.5mn times, the pair discussed Gadkari’s favourite dishes and holiday destinations, while gently touting his work building motorways and reducing vehicle emissions. “He is a foodie first, and a politician second,” went the video’s blurb.
The dinner was one of a flood of such encounters as the use of influencers to promote politicians soars in India ahead of a general election expected in April and May.
The trend is international: US campaign groups are spending millions of dollars to hire social media influencers and President Joe Biden recently hosted a White House reception for internet celebrities.
But social media stars offer political parties a particularly valuable chance to connect with young people in India, a country where two-thirds of the 1.4bn population is under 35 and that has more YouTube and Instagram subscribers than any other.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP, which is widely expected to win the general election, has been assiduously cultivating influencers.
In December, “Curly Tales” featured Anurag Thakur, the BJP’s information minister. Several other cabinet members have appeared on popular social media channels better known for humour or self-help over the past 12 months. An interview with foreign minister S Jaishankar by YouTuber Ranveer Allahbadia, known as “BeerBiceps”, has racked up 8.7mn views since June.
“The BJP is massively ahead of other parties” in using influencers, said Joyojeet Pal, an associate professor at the University of Michigan. “As a trend . . . it’s going to accelerate dramatically, I’m willing to predict, between now and the generals.”
BJP organisers have over the past year held regular meetings with social media influencers, while the government has tendered for “influencer marketing agencies” to promote its work.
A study co-authored by Pal last month found that of 29 recent interviews with Indian politicians conducted by five prominent YouTubers, all but five were with BJP members or its allies. Among the exceptions was a “Curly Tales” interview with Rahul Gandhi, leader of the opposition Indian National Congress.
“We consider social media influencers as part of our family,” said Punit Agarwal, a BJP spokesperson. “As a party we are trying to reach out to the last mile. They help us do that more effectively, more efficiently . . . so definitely they are pretty useful.”
Securing slots with influencers gives politicians the chance to offer carefully curated views of their personal lives and hobbies without the scrutiny more likely to come with traditional media interviews.
Yet this trend alarms some analysts, who say there is not enough transparency about how political parties secure publicity from influencers.
Thanks to the BJP’s greater financial resources and status as both ruling party and election favourite, analysts say there is limited incentive for influencers to associate with Modi’s rivals.
“There is this constant attempt . . . of trying to either co-opt the influencers or keep them happy in some way so that the messaging that comes out of them is largely positive,” said Prateek Waghre of the New Delhi-based Internet Freedom Foundation.
Analysts also warn that it is difficult to know when influencers have taken money in order to promote politicians.
Sabhanaz Rashid Diya, founder of the Tech Global Institute think-tank, which has conducted a review of social media platform policies around political content from influencers, said those of YouTube and Meta were too vague. And enforcement was particularly difficult because transactions happened off the platform.
“It’s creating this whole black market for information and advertisements, and it’s distorting how people are seeing politicians,” said Diya, a former Meta executive.
YouTube said creators were “required to disclose if their content includes paid promotion of any kind . . . If content is found to violate these policies, we take appropriate action, which can include removing content”.
Meta said it had “clear policies around branded content that require creators to use our paid partnership label whenever posting branded content”.
Shailesh Lilhare, a 21-year-old influencer from the central state of Chhattisgarh, charged candidates about Rs15,000 ($181) each to feature in short, witty videos ahead of state elections in November and hopes to continue ahead of national polls.
“In our area, no one reads newspapers or watches TV, but people have their faces buried in their phones all day,” said Lilhare. Politicians “want to take their messages to voters. That’s where we matter the most.”
Agarwal, the BJP spokesperson, said the party “mostly” does not hire influencers, but candidates can do so. He argued, however, that most influencers want to promote the party because they share its ideology.
Influencers can enjoy a boost to engagement when they feature politicians or political content. Tech Global Institute research found that views and comments on influencer posts in India increased 30 per cent or more when they featured a candidate.
But Lilhare warned that becoming too closely associated could backfire. Political parties “know that our magic lies in the credibility and trust that our followers have in us”, he said. “It’s best to keep the messaging subtle.”
Others take a different approach. Dhirendra Krishna Shastri, a 27-year-old Hindu guru also known as Baba Bageshwar, has accumulated 7.5mn YouTube followers in part by promoting a vision of religious nationalism that chimes with the BJP’s own political Hinduism.
After Modi last month inaugurated a temple to the Hindu god Ram on the long-contested site of a destroyed mosque, a BJP parliamentarian invited Shastri to attend and to broadcast an event celebrating the project. “Do not be misguided by anti-Hindu forces,” the guru said. “This land belongs to Lord Ram.”
